I welcome this apology. Our State was founded on very lofty principles. Many of them have been delivered but so many of them have not. During the last century, the State fell short in terms of delivering for it citizens. This is one example of that. I met these people in September outside the Dáil. I acknowledge the courage it took for them to take the steps they did, and I am glad that it has resulted in a conclusion or a closure of some sort for them. The apology is merited and appropriate and I welcome the fact it has come. I do, however, think that we are sometimes too slow to apologise. As a State, I understand there are legal considerations, liabilities and all the rest. However, at the end of the day, we know there are instances in our past which constitute as a stain on the history of this State for which we should be sorry, and for which I think we are genuinely sorry, yet bureaucratically we are slow to apologise for. We should not be. When we know something is wrong, we should be willing to stand up to say as much whether that is as a Government or as an individual citizen. We should be able to acknowledge the harms done by the State and by our society in the past. We should be quicker and swifter in acknowledging that because it is only then that we can start to heal the damage that was done. While I welcome this apology, there are many other instances where apologies have been sought and are not yet forthcoming. One group - and I do not propose to talk about them now - are the thalidomide survivors who are also awaiting a real solution. However, I acknowledge the work that has been done by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in meeting them. I hope they progress that process quickly. The most important thing about what we are talking about today is that we, as a polity and as a State, genuinely take on board what has been done in the past that was wrong, hurtful and damaging, acknowledge it with a proper State apology that has been received today and not just the survivors to move on and live their lives, but we, as a State, cannot move on until those apologies are made. I applaud and welcome the fact that the apology has been made. I welcome the package that has been put together and I congratulate those who put it together but when this issue comes up as it will again, let us do it more swiftly. Let us be fair to the people who were wronged by the State and make sure they get what they need and deserve.

Sentiment score: 0.16