From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman TD, has today received Government approval for the text of the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records Bill 2020.
The Bill deals with the arrangements for the transfer and management of the records of the Commission of investigation upon its dissolution. These records include databases and related information on the mothers and children who were resident in the main mother and baby homes, which have been compiled by the Commission of Investigation in the course of its work.
At its meeting today, Government approved the text of the Bill which will provide for the safeguarding and protection of these valuable records. The Bill has been drafted along the lines of the General Scheme which the Minister recently published (15 September 2020). Minister O’Gorman will immediately make arrangements for formal publication of the Bill in the coming days and plans to progress the Bill in the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible thereafter.
Following the Cabinet meeting today, the Minister said:
“The Commission is shortly due to complete its comprehensive five year investigation into the treatment of vulnerable woman and children who passed through these institutions over more than three quarters of a century.
“When the Commission deposits its records, along with its final report into these matters, with me by the 30 October, this new legislation will ensure that the archive of records and databases compiled by the Commission will be appropriately protected. There is an absolute urgency to safeguarding the Commission’s database in the immediate term, and I welcome the support of my Government colleagues in this matter.”
The Bill aims to address the specific challenges and opportunities raised by the Commission in finalising its records. Most significantly, the legislation facilitates the direct transfer of certain databases and records relating to the former residents of the institutions being examined from the Commission to the Child and Family Agency.
The Minister clarified that:
“As Tusla was the source of the majority of the primary records utilised by the Commission in developing this database it is the obvious choice as the appropriate statutory Agency to receive the Commission’s database and related records at this time. The Agency also has current statutory functions, professional social work and related expertise in adoption-related services and activities”.
The Minister acknowledged that:
“This Bill will not, of itself, create any new rights or entitlements to access birth and early life information from within the evidence and records of the Commission of Investigation. The complex constitutional and legal issues in seeking to provide a robust basis for expanding access to birth information can only be addressed by future legislation, and I am committed to advancing this matter”.
In progressing the present, bespoke legislation, the Minister emphasised, that the Bill does not alter existing arrangements for transfer of the remainder of the Commissions records, which are to be deposited with the Minister for safekeeping in accordance with the statutory framework of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004.
ENDS