Fears mother-and-baby homes inquiry will not go far enough

IRELAND
Irish Examiner

Initial enthusiasm from campaigners that the inquiry would be as wide ranging as possible, has been replaced by a worried scepticism, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

AS WE await the formation of the Commission to Inquire into Mother and Baby Homes, the private attitude of Government to another related scandal — the Magdalene Laundries — is instructive.

Following the publication of the McAleese report, this newspaper pointed out that Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s two-week delay in offering a formal state apology may have been explained in one simple word: Money.

More than that, it was pointed out that the key concern for Government was about how to handle offering any redress that could open the floodgates “to more compensation schemes arising from other human rights abuses in mother-and-baby homes and psychiatric institutions”.

For the former of these institutions, we have now reached that point.

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