Local TDs on why they voted yes to mother and baby homes bill

“To say that this bill is going to bury data for 30 years is wholly inaccurate,” said Minister Robert Troy, responding to a public backlash over the controversial ‘Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020’, signed into law by the president on Sunday night.

The bill allows for the safe transfer of a database of 60,000 records, generated by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.

Minister Troy said “this bill protects and saves records that otherwise would have been destroyed or redacted”.

“The reason this legislation had to be done in a hurry is that when the report is complete, which happens at the end of this month, the commission will be dissolved, and if legislation wasn’t brought in to protect it, some of the information would be lost or redacted.”

“There will be an archive kept for 30 years, certainly,” he said, “but there is also other data being kept within Tusla and within the department, and that data will continue to have access.”

He said that further legislation is needed, and the government has committed to that, to allow for “advanced access”. That will be done through the advancement of the Information and Tracing Bill, something which Minister Troy raised 34 times previously in the Dáil as opposition spokesperson for children, and which seeks to establish an information and tracing service to help those who have been adopted to get access to their information.

“The report into mother and baby homes will be published, and will include the testimony of every individual who on an anonymous basis gave evidence to the commission. The report is expected to be 4,000 pages long, and then the commission is dissolved.

“There is absolutely no question of hiding or concealing any truth. This is a very dark spell in the history of our country and we need to be open about our past – we don’t want to hide it away or bury it, we want to be open about it, acknowledge it and help people move on from it.”

The investigation into mother and baby homes was established in 2015 and is due give its final report next week; it will be sent to the attorney general, who will refer it for publication, like the Ferns Report, and the Murphy Report of a Commission of investigation in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, both government inquiries into the allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

Poor communication

Minister Peter Burke also voted for the bill in the Dáil last week. He blames poor communication by Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman for the confusion among the public. “I fully appreciate there has been a huge outpouring of emotion and empathy, but some people have genuinely got the wrong message,” said Minister Burke.

“The database, the archive, is not going to be sealed and put away and hidden for 30 years. That’s not going to happen; that was never the intention. It’s going to be protected, it’s going to be preserved and for people who want access to their personal information, the government will make sure of this.

“I in no way would allow this very dark period of history to be swept under the carpet,” Minster Burke told the Westmeath Examiner.

The records are going to be protected and preserved and those who want access to their personal information will get that access. I accepted fully the government’s responsibility in communicating this and I have taken this up with the minister, and he will now meet survivors to reassure them.”

Minister Troy agreed that communication of the bill was wasn’t handled “as well as it should have been”, and that contributed to the anxiety, worry and hurt felt by the survivors of mother and baby homes.

“It’s important now that the 4,000-page document is published,” he said. “It will make for harrowing reading, and will lay bare for all to see the shame of how people in authority, and the institutions of the state, treated certain women and certain children, and it’s right that a light be shone on this dark period of our history.

“It’s right that we help these people and so we can begin to move on from this. This legislation will protect the information collated. Further legislation is needed to ensure there is wider accessibility, but there is no intention to close this down for 30 years, certainly not.”

He said that the way in which the some media outlets used phrases such as ‘seal the archives’, ‘deny access’, and ‘bury the truth’, fuelled public anger.

“A lot of people aren’t reading the full bill, a lot are taking reports from headlines, or three- or four-line statements from Facebook and it’s unfortunate because what that’s doing is causing huge anxiety and hurt among people who have already gone through horrific ordeals in their past. These are people who just want access to the truth, and they want to have their voices heard and that’s exactly what needs to happen.

“Yes, there will be need for further legislation to ensure future access, that is not being denied, that has been promised and been committed to,” he said.

“The simple fact of the matter is the bill has been misrepresented, maybe it’s for political reasons or maybe people don’t understand the nuances of it.”