Settlement of applications for judicial review of Final Report of Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, T.D., has today agreed to settle eight judicial review cases in relation to the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, in light of the evidence given by the applicants in the two lead cases to the Court on the procedural matter of being identifiable.

As part of this settlement, the Minister will publish an acknowledgement alongside the Final Report stating that a number of survivors do not accept the accounts given in the Final Report as a true and full reflection of what they said to the Confidential Committee or the Commission of Investigation.

The Minister has always recognised and accepted the concerns of some survivors about the Final Report and this written statement formalises that acknowledgement.

The Minister also acknowledges that, because the relevant parts of the draft report were not furnished to the applicants, they did not have the opportunity to ask the Commission to correct statements within the report that they believed to be wrong. The statement will identify key paragraphs of concern to the applicants in these cases.

Finally, in light of the evidence on identity presented by the applicants, the Minister has consented to a declaration that the Commission, by failing to provide the applicant, who is identifiable in the Final Report, with a draft of the report, or relevant part of the report, as required by section 34(1) of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004 prior to submitting the Final Report to the Minister, acted in breach of statutory duty.

The Minister hopes that this settlement gives some comfort to the applicants.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes carried out a significant and wide-ranging statutory inquiry using powers under the Commissions of Investigation Act, 2004. It carried out its inquiry independent of Government, and relied on the testimony of hundreds of survivors and millions of pages of documentary evidence.

The Minister recognises the courage of survivors and former residents of the Mother and Baby institutions in giving this testimony and thanks them for their valuable contributions.

The Minister appreciates that the findings and recommendations of the Commission are important to many survivors. While the Minister acknowledges that specific paragraphs are not accepted by a number of survivors, he is also aware that some of those paragraphs may reflect the experiences and evidence of other survivors.

The Minister has recently committed to developing a new mechanism which will allow survivors’ personal accounts to be recorded, acknowledged and stand as part of the official record of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. This is intended to address the concerns and disappointment expressed by some survivors regarding how the personal accounts they gave to the Commission’s Confidential Committee were treated.. This process will feed into Government’s broader work in the area of memorialisation, and it is hoped that the outcome will form the heart of a National Memorial and Records Centre. This commitment is reflected in Government’s Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, published in November.

Through this new mechanism, the Minister proposes to establish a process for any survivor of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions who may wish to come forward voluntarily with a view to having their personal account formally recognised as part of the official record of the history and lived experience of these institutions. The process will be underpinned by human rights principles and overseen and managed by a team with expertise in human rights, trauma and memory, communications and oral history.

Scoping work for this process has recently commenced and the Minister hopes to be in a position to provide further details shortly.

ENDS

Acknowledgement

Read the acknowledgement here.

Background

A number of people (8) have been granted leave, by the High Court, to take judicial review proceedings in relation to the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and the two lead cases were heard on 17 and 18 November. The applicants claimed to be identifiable in the report and argued that they were therefore entitled to a draft of the report, or the relevant part of the draft of the report, prior to its publication. The applicants did not accept that specific paragraphs in the report fully reflected what they said to the Confidential Committee or the Commission of Investigation.

Government Response to the Commission’s Report

In January 2021 the final report of the Commission of Investigation was published. The Taoiseach apologised on behalf of the Government, the State and its citizens for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a Mother and Baby Home or a County Home. The Taoiseach acknowledged that, over a period of decades, the State had failed to protect vulnerable citizens, and that the State's duty of care towards those citizens had not been upheld.

The Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, which was published on 16 November, takes account of the Commission of Investigation’s recommendations, as well as the priority needs and concerns of survivors and former residents and their families, as established through engagement with those most affected.

The Government is conscious of the need to move swiftly to implement the commitments made. A major element of the Action Plan will be the creation of a National Memorial and Records Centre. This will be progressed by a Group chaired by the Secretary General to the Government. The Centre will provide a mechanism for survivors’ accounts to be fully expressed and acknowledged and stand on the historical record.