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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said the audio recordings of testimony destroyed by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission “may be retrieved in some form” but that there are “limitations to what the government can do”.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Martin said that the material was “valuable personal information” and he noted that leaflets given to survivors made no reference to the destruction of tapes.
Some survivors have expressed anger at the destruction of the audio recordings, saying they were not informed their testimony would be destroyed.
The commission report states that witnesses were asked to record their evidence “on the clear understanding” that the recordings were to be used for as an aide memoire for the researchers and would be destroyed afterwards.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Children’s Committee yesterday, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said it is “problematic” that the Commission maintains it told survivors that the recordings would be deleted while many survivors have said they were not told this in advance.
In the Dáil today, Galway West TD Catherine Connolly said that “nowhere in any of the documentation that I carefully scrutinised” made reference to the tapes being destroyed.
“People came forward to give evidence, took their courage in their hands, believed in the system once again – or tried to believe in it – and are left now in a situation where there is no recording of their evidence,” she said.
That was done on the basis that the commissioners knew best and were trying to protect them, with no evidence other than the commission’s word that this was communicated to them in any manner.
Connolly noted that “all the tapes from a previous commission on child abuse were preserved” and asked whether the Mother and Baby Homes Commission had “looked at precedents from previous commissions”.
She said the decision by the commission to destroy the tapes represented “an imbalance of power”.
“The powerful are telling the powerless what they think is in their interest and that they should be protected by getting rid of the tapes,” she said.
Here's that exchange between @MichealMartinTD and @catherinegalway on the MABH tapes.
— Rónán Duffy (@ronanduffy_) February 17, 2021
Connolly says it's a question of "the powerful telling the powerless what they think is in their interest."
Taoiseach says there "are limitations to what the government can do here" pic.twitter.com/A11rhoQvrX
The Taoiseach said that the Minister for Children has written to commission about the issue and has noted that “in the leaflets that were issued to the survivors there is no reference to the destruction of tapes at all”.
He said that the decision to destroy the tapes was part of efforts by the commission to “guarantee anonymity”.
“The minister has written to the commission asking if it is in a position to retrieve the tapes or if there is some technological way of doing so. He has not, to my knowledge, gotten a response yet,” the Taoiseach said.
He added that “no member of the government was involved in the commission” and that “there are limitations to what the government can do here”.
“The government is very focused on what it has committed to doing as regards access to information, information and tracing legislation, reporting on the redress situation by the end of April and other matters,” he said.
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1 in 2 people are either male or female
Surely that should be everyone is either male or female.
I’m 21 days smoke free :-)
Great keep it up its hard for you but well worth the effort !
Well done Aisling :)
Either make it illegal, or shut up about it. Useless story.
bollocks to that – how many hours are lost each year “outside puffing”. How many sick days a year in HSE?
They can’t afford to smoke anymore simple as…..
I’d be afraid to know the statistic of smokers in germany, nearly everybody smokes, young and old.
Yeah but there’s massive differences in Germany,
- Smoking adverts exist on billboards and bus stops
- Shops have adverts up in windows and behind the counter
- Cigs are openly for sale, one example is in Aldi where instead of sweets at the checklike like you have in Ireland they have cigs…hundreds of the things!
- Many streets have cig vending machines that can be used anytime.
Goes to show that Ireland has done something right,
As much as i dont like smoking its not illegal for god sake so i dont understand the point of the article…Who gives a sh*t!!
I’m all for the non-smoking campuses but the enforcement just isn’t there, if anyone has been to CUH you can hear that voice announcing that “Cork University Hospital is a smoke-free campus, the smoke from your cigarette is directly effecting patients in the breast cancer and cardiac unit overhead etc etc” but patients, staff and visitors still smoke there regardless, plenty porters bring the patients out for a smoke no bother!
Many (not ALL) smokers have no regard for anyone else, especially in places where people have health issues.
Anyone with asthma will tell you the problems that people smoking around them can cause, the last thing such a person needs is to walk through a cloud of smoke as they leave a hospital!\
Very true, Martin. I have to run the gauntlet of smoke every 4 weeks when attending the respiratory clinic. It’s ridiculous, but I do think it’s slowly improving.
The gauntlet of smoke?
Oh the humanity!!!
First world problems strike again.
I quite enjoyed mixing that particular metaphor, Alan ;)
You might say it’s a first-world problem, and possibly it is; if I had been born in the developing world I’d be dead long before now. Remember, though, this is a hospital. People shouldn’t have to risk their own health to any degree just to pass through the doors.
What a pile of drivel?
This is about spending more money to help HSE smokers quit. I know of one person who availed of this scheme… a complete waste of money as she still puffs 20-30 per day. If HSE staff want to quit let them do so with their own cash and not the tax payer.
I say they should fire all HSE staff that cannot keep their grubby yellow fingered mitts off of the cancer sticks for the 8 hours a day they are required to be at work.
Get a grip of yourself….smoking is a personal choice. Sack the nurses, then who would be there to look after the whingers like you? Now im going to make a lovely cup of tea & have a lovely cigarette to go with it.
No doubt you won’t be worrying about the medical services, hospital beds and hospital budgets that won’t be available for your children and relatives now or in the future when they need them, because the selfish, coffin nail addicted, people like yourself are using them all up – coughing up your lungs and polluting the place while you die slowly at huge expense to the taxpayer. That won’t worry you one little bit will it ?
Nope!! It sure won’t u pathetic do gooding whinge
Well when youre out dogooding and moralling bullshitting out of you,make sure and berate the fatties in supermacs with their clogged arteries,and the alcoholics taking up valuable breathing space,and the junkies,they all need hospital beds too,at least smokers will agree with you that its a disgusting addiction,but the fatties all go around miffed about why theyre fat,as if it was a fcuking mystery!
Well said Barry!!
U sound like you could do with a smoke, would u ever light up!!! Sorry I meant lighten up……
You sound like you could be paid for by the tobacco – profits before people – industry….
The tobacco industry could pay me all day long if they wanted, I’d be delighted!!!
U sound like you could do with a smoke, would u ever light up!!! Sorry I meant lighten up……
So?
have your say