Mother and baby homes recordings destroyed
Deputy Whitmore raised concern that 550 survivors' audio testimonies from the mother and baby homes commission had been destroyed without full transcription. The Tánaiste said he had only recently learned of it, that the Minister responsible was now aware, and any extension of the commission would be a ministerial decision.
Five hundred and fifty survivors gave their testimony as part of the mother and baby homes commission investigation. Those recordings were never fully transcribed and they have since been destroyed. That is despite assurances from the Minister in October that survivors would be able to access their own stories and also a clause in the 2004 Commissions of Investigation Act that the commission is required to retain all evidence it receives. It has been reported that the Data Protection Commissioner, DPC, has contacted the commission regarding the destruction of these files. However, the commission is due to be dissolved on 28 February, which is only a few weeks away. It is very important that we do not fail these survivors again. Will the Government immediately extend the term of the commission to enable a full investigation of the destruction of these files and the recovery of any information possible?
Comment on this
I thank the Deputy. I only heard about that the other day and was quite surprised to hear it, quite frankly. It is something I know the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is now aware of and it will be a decision for him as to whether it makes sense to further extend the term of the commission. It is important to say once again that the mother and baby homes commission is independent of Government. It was established by the Oireachtas. It is not controlled by the Government or a creature of Government. Commissions, by their very nature, just like tribunals, are independent bodies. Perhaps one of the flaws in the process is an independent body like a commission can spend five years hearing evidence, examining evidence and making its report but then is not there to explain it. One is then left, as a Government Minister, trying to explain a report that one had no role in actually drawing up. I do not blame the members of the commission for that in any way but if we are going to do another inquiry on a similar issue, we need to look at a better way to do it.
