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LAST UPDATE | 28 Oct 2020
THE GOVERNMENT HAS said it will set up a national archive of records related to institutional trauma during the 20th century, in a statement released this evening regarding Mother and Baby Homes.
In the statement, the government said it met today and had a “detailed reflection” on issues of public concern raised in the past few days.
“The Government acknowledges and regrets the genuine hurt felt by many people across Irish society,” the statement said.
“It is determined to take the necessary actions to ensure that these concerns are dealt with in a manner that is timely, appropriate and that is focused on the needs of victims and survivors.”
The government said it agreed a number of next steps, including working to set up a national archive of records related to institutional trauma during the 20th century.
This will include archiving records and witness testimony from victims and survivors.
The government said it will be set up “at a suitable site” and designed in cooperation with professional archivists, historians and survivors.
The Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman is due to receive the report of the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes this Friday with the government saying that it will be published “as soon as possible” thereafter.
The much-awaited report is understood to be some 4,000 pages long but will not be published when received by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman this week.
No timeline has been placed on when the report can be published, however, with the department noting that “a number of procedural matters” are required to be fulfilled before this can take place.
GDPR
The Department of Children along with Túsla will continue engaging with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner to ensure peoples’ right to access their own personal information will be respected, the government said.
It added that the HSE will expedite providing health and wellbeing support to survivors.
The government also plans to proceed with legislation to provide for “sensitive and appropriate actions” at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway where the bodies of 796 babies and young children were discovered in a sewage container in 2017.
The final report from the Commission will be referred to the Attorney General for legal advice as to whether it may prejudice any criminal proceedings.
“The 2004 Act requires the minister to consider whether the publication of the report might publish any criminal proceedings that are pending or in progress, if so the minister is obliged to apply to the court for directions concerning the publication of the report,” the department says.
The minster is aware from representations he has received that a number of parties have made complaints of a potentially criminal nature to garda authorities. Consideration of these matters will necessitate engagement with the Attorney General, Garda Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The government also said it will develop a “comprehensive State response” to the findings and recommendations of the report for urgent consideration.
Coalition TDs have said that the government was taken aback by the backlash to last week’s Mother and Baby Homes Bill. Minister Michael McGrath said earlier today that it was never the intention for the bill to cause “such anxiety and anger”.
Today’s discussions at Cabinet were described as “very detailed discussions” but that decisions on the issue were taken collectively not by O’Gorman.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime this evening, O’Gorman’s party leader Eamon Ryan said that that his minister dealt with the issue appropriately.
“I think Roderic has said himself that he wished that maybe there’d been further consultation, or more consultation done. Our sole focused on this is actually addressing the fears and concerns and legitimate worries that those survivors have, and our single focus is on how can we actually help them,” he said.
With reporting by Orla Dwyer
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Just unseal the records, let the truth out.
A petition created challenging the government decision to seal the records.
@Ruth Bourke: The statements taken were confidential
They need to be published immediately.
This seems more and more like a FF/FG cover up to hide these parties involvement and collusion with the Mother and Baby Homes.
The useless Greens are taking the hit though.
@Cookie: they can’t just make it public information straight away. There’s so many laws broken it’ll take years before it all comes out. The part that gets me is ‘it’s to protect the files’. From who You’d wonder? It’s been known many times going back many years. I watched a short video from the gaurdian the other day. A 12 year old boy robbing apples discovered the chamber and its contents. Within the week the church had levelled the site and built a playground on it. The local authorities knew exactly what was there. It’s rotten to the core
@Vinny Clare: Link?
@Kiern https://fb.watch/1pwgHhOten/
@Kiern Mcx: it’s a New York Times video my mistake
Just remember who voted to steal the Documents. When it comes to the next election shame on them…
@Derek Moean:
the irish people seem to have a short memory Derek.. But let’s hope that fg and ff trying to sweep this genocide under the covers is the final straw and people’s see them for what they really are.
Can everyone please remember this come election time! Endas crappy disk speech was a pr stunt. The two parties showed us their true colours and similar natures again. Please stop voting for them.
The claim by Eamon Ryan that the minister would have wanted consultation on the bill is laughable. Remember the minister allowed no discussion or amendments to the bill when it was rushed through the Dàil and Seanad. The government are now in damage limitation mode. The fact they were surprised by the reaction of the people to their bill tells us how out of touch they are. Incompetence is the order of the day.
Ongoing legal issues….. don’t hold your breath. These guys will keep it out the public domain for years
The minister knows nothing. Dept heads need to give it to all people involved so that they can react the * out of it so that no one can really read it. Just get bits and pieces. It’s a cover up all reports are. They are going have a tribunal of enquiry that again will find no one fault. We’d be better off interview everyone involved and release their video/story on their deaths. At least then we would know exactly what happened and who did what and who knew. My grannys dad worked on an estate where the owner got many young maids pregnant and who was a big donor to these homes. You can see why.
It really is appalling governance. I guess they don’t want the names of dead/living politicians, judges, garda names being revealed who put their mistresses in these institutions and their legitimate offspring finding a sibling they never knew existed.
Really can’t think of any other reason to seal these records.
@Teresa Ryan: Any chance that any RC clergy have their names in there?
@Declan Spring: Would anyone be surprised if there were?
I wonder how this report will affect our International reputation?
Fanous last words as soon as possible.
Published???? I thought the records were frozen???? Or is that just the lie the opposition were pushing.
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: the report is getting published (sometime), it’s the records that are sealed; so less of the political point scoring, it’s plain sickening!
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: How far wrong do these guys have to be before fanboys like you stop being fanboys?
@Paul Tennant: the records aren’t sealed. They’ve been handed to tusla.
@G Row.: all it would take is for them to have sealed the records. They didn’t though.
@Mairtin Antaine O Conaill: Don’t believe you. DO you think Tusla are the best people for records to be handed to ?
“the government was taken aback by the backlash to last week’s Mother and Baby Homes Bill”.
Can’t understand how they didn’t see it coming.
Detailed reflection? They underestimated the public responce..While Eamon Ryan all but disappeared and Martin and Varadkar were quite happy to let O’Gorman spin this farce this circus of a government has just stumbled into another mess of their own making.
4,000 pages…. Have they ‘lost’ the other 56,000 pages already?
4,000 pages… Have they ‘lost’ the other 56,000 pages already?
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