From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has commenced legislation that provides for the preservation of privately-held administrative and other records related to Ireland’s institutional past.
The legislation covers relevant records relating to Magdalen Laundries, Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, industrial schools, orphanages, adoption agencies and boarding out arrangements, as well as the bodies that ran or oversaw these institutions and placement arrangements. It is now an offence for holders of relevant records to destroy, mutilate, falsify, fail to maintain or to export them from the State. This does not apply to survivors or affected persons, or their families, who hold records relating to themselves and their own institutional experiences.
The legislation forms part of the Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024, which was signed into law by the President on 28 October. Part 3 of the Act, which provides for the preservation of privately-held records, comes into operation today.
This part of the Act also permits the Director of the National Archives to engage with potential private holders and request a statement of the relevant records they hold.
Speaking today the Minister said:
“I am pleased that this important legislation is now in place. It ensures that records, which support an understanding of people’s identities and the institutional systems that shaped their life experiences, are preserved so that future access to them is not rendered impossible.”
“It is important that those who hold relevant records are aware of their obligations and the related offences under this new legislation.”
The Minister said he brought forward the legislation on an urgent basis on foot of calls from survivors and former residents, affected persons, their families and advocates and he thanked them for bringing the issue to his attention.
Notes to Editors
• The Maternity Protection, Employment Equality and Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024 is available here: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/act/2024/37/eng/enacted/a3724.pdf
• Private actors covered by this legislation include anyone who holds records relating to Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, Magdalen laundries, industrial schools and reformatories, and orphanages, as well as the bodies who ran or oversaw these institutions, and those who were involved in placing people for adoption, into a care arrangement, into an institution, or with the persons who assumed the role of parents to them, in the case of illegal birth registration.
• The legislation does not include those who hold records in relation to their own (of their family member’s) experiences in an institution or in relation to one of these arrangements. It also does not apply to public bodies.
• Further information is available on the ‘Preservation of Private Records – Questions and Answers’ page.