IRELAND
Department of Children and Youth Affairs
Tuesday 11th April, 2017
Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today (11 April 2017) published the Second Interim Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes.
The Minister thanked the Commission for its important work and said:
“I want to deal sensitively with the matters raised by the Commission to date. The focus in this report is on children who were unaccompanied by their mothers in Mother and Baby Homes and County Homes.
I want to see what supports and services can be offered to this specific group now in the area of health and well-being. The Commission will continue its work and deal with issues affecting all former residents in its final report, but for now I want to identify how we can be of assistance to those who were left unaccompanied in these institutions. I am going to consult with those affected, and then bring proposals to Government before the summer break.”
The Commission was set up to inquire into the conditions in Mother and Baby Homes and County Homes in the period 1922-1998. Following a short first interim report last July, it submitted a second interim report in September 2016. This deals with a number of issues that had come to its attention during its work and analysis based on information collected up to August 2016.
In its interim report published today, the Commission:
– suggests that the exclusion of children who were resident in Mother and Baby Homes and in County Homes without their mothers from the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme which was established in 2002 and has since closed, or a similar such scheme should be re-examined;
– is satisfied that the institutions it is investigating are ‘unquestionably’ the main such homes that existed during the 20th century, and does not currently recommend that other institutions be investigated;
– is not recommending any changes to its terms of reference at this time but may recommend further investigations when its current investigation is completed; and
– does not make findings to date that abuse occurred in these institutions, but notes that its work is not yet complete;
– recognises that people whose births were falsely registered have a need to establish their identity but recognises that the false registration of births is a very difficult issue to investigate because of a lack of accurate records.
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