Mother and Baby Homes

Three submissions made recommendations to the DCEDIY relating to the “Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation” (AI, the ARA and TVG, Cork). Both the AI and TVG, Cork submissions recommended the payment of reparations and/or other forms of redress to former inhabitants of the Mother and Baby Homes. AI defined reparations as: “full and effective reparation to the victims and their families, in its five forms: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition”. TVG, Cork recommended that the State consider issuing a formal apology to those affected.

According to the ARA:

Recent controversies surrounding access to the records of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes highlights the need for engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, including archivists who are uniquely placed to provide guidance on issues of access, including the development of access policies, and the multifaceted legal and ethical issues that arise in the management of highly sensitive information.

Both the AI and TVG, Cork submissions recommended that the Department ensure that victims of historical Mother and Baby Homes are provided with access to their own records and personal data. TVG, Cork wrote: “The Department needs to state a clear intent to allow the victims of Mother & Baby Homes access to all relevant information”. AI welcomed the “Government Statement on Mother and Baby Homes” which “acknowledged the hurt caused by the manner in which the legislation transferring the Commission database to Tusla was handled, creating fear and distress that these records would be sealed for 30 years”. AI recommended that: “the Department ensures that the Government commitment to enabling victims’ and survivors’ access to their personal records and data be fulfilled”. AI also recommended that the DCEDIY, in its SoS adhere to “the Government’s commitment…to establishing a national archive” of records relating to this historical “institutional trauma”. TVG, Cork recommended that the Traveller ethnicity of Mother and Baby home victims is acknowledged where relevant. They also referenced a “history of taking Traveller children into care”.