I pay tribute to all industrial and reformatory school survivors and to those who have not lived to hear today's State apology. It is one apology in a series to those who suffered terribly in State institutions. It will ring hollow if it is not followed quickly by the enactment of commitments the Taoiseach made to the hunger strikers last November. I connected with Mary Dunlevy Greene, Mary Donovan, Miriam Moriarty Owens and Maurice Patton O'Connell during their 51-day protest outside Leinster House, in particular with Mary Dunlevy Greene through our shared County Limerick roots. I look forward to meeting Mary in Kilteely, County Limerick, in the coming months. I was deeply struck by the determination and commitment to justice shown by these survivors on behalf of all who endured our hellish industrial and reformatory school system. We may have moved on from the savage abuse and abject deprivation that defined our industrial and reformatory schools, but too often this has given way to a cold bureaucratic system that meets survivors not with respect and compassion, but with delay, resistance or indifference when they try to access healthcare, basic financial supports and measures that would bring a modicum of comfort to their lives. I implore the Taoiseach to act on the commitments he made to the survivors last November with the greatest urgency.

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