Debate contribution: Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Stewart Dickson on 22 June 2026.

MLA: Mr Stewart Dickson
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 22 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill: Further Consideration Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5638722

Text

I support the amendments that my colleague the Chair of the Committee indicated. Amendment Nos 9 and 10 were tabled by Mr Carroll for all the reasons that Members have outlined. It is not that there is no concern, sympathy or empathy for the situation regarding workhouses, but I believe that the arrangements in the Bill allow for the inquiry to address those issues, if it is practical for it to do so at that particular stage. With regard to the posthumous date, I want to do two things. First, I express my gratitude for the hard work that has gone on at Committee and for the deliberations that we had in order to arrive at that date. It is difficult to understand why we had to go through that process in order to bring that situation to a conclusion today. Whatever those reasons were, the discussions in the Committee were always respectful and always caveated with individuals' concerns. I place on record my thanks to Phillip Brett for the way in which he handled the matter. He resolutely opposed the proposal during Committee Stage, but he did so with dignity and reasoned argument. That did not gain the support of the Committee, but he has done a really good thing this evening by saying that he is not prepared to see the House divide on the matter. I applaud you for that, Phillip; thank you very much indeed. We need also to reflect on the times that people went through and the trauma that mothers and, subsequently, children went through in those homes. I am going to tell the House a story now. I was born in 1950 in Thorndale House, which was one of the homes that is named in the legislation. I was born to married parents, and Thorndale House was a maternity home. It was where you went to have your baby in 1950 on the Antrim Road. My mum and dad went there, I was born and, a few days later, I left with loving parents. However, the cruelty of that situation is that, on the other side of the curtain, the same midwives, nurses and staff were being unbelievably cruel to single mothers. I could not get that out of my head when all this came to me. It dawned on me that I was born in a place where people, through the Salvation Army, were providing Christian care to married mothers but, at the same time, were unleashing unbelievable horrors and mental trauma on single mothers. I found that very difficult to comprehend and understand. That is why I want the inquiry to succeed and why it is vital that it succeeds. That is why it is important for us to see that cruelty in the full glare of a public inquiry. That is why it is important that the scheme goes through without further delay. Finally, I place on record my thanks to the Committee Chair. You might expect me to do that because she is a party colleague, but, in truth, Paula Bradshaw in particular has expended a great deal of time in engaging purposefully with victims and survivors. She has engaged with academics and all the people around this, and she has developed a tremendous empathy and understanding. She has guided the Committee through the complexities of the Bill, and I have to say that I am immensely proud of the work that she has done as Committee Chair. I place on record my thanks to her: thank you, Chair.

590 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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