The Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes Bill 2020 designed to protect and preserve all records collected by the Commission of Investigation was introduced in Seanad Eireann on Octorer 14th, 2020.
The Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes was established in 2015 and due to be dissolved on Oct 30th, 2020.
The Commission of Investigations’ records document the history of more than 70,000 women and baby’s, in 18 institutions over the course of more than 75 years.
Mary supports the Government legislating to protect the entire record of the Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes. It is critically important that this entire archive of records is protected and preserved unredacted and none of the documents must be destroyed.
Mary asked the Minister to commit to the following:
- A complete, unredacted, version of the entire archive be retained in the Department of Children
- Guarantee personal data access to the archive to all living survivors
- Publish an anonymised index of the archive so that consideration can be given to nature of the contents and the process by which it can be made publicly available with the consent of those who contributed debated
- Champion the establishment of dedicated archive of historical abuse records, memorial and centre for healing on the former Magdalene laundry site on Sean McDermott Street, D1.
See Mary speak here: