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Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 February 2021

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Questions (480)

Róisín Shortall

Question:

480. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if private nursing homes were included in the remit for the recently published mother and baby homes report, including a home (details supplied); if not, the reason; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5337/21]

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Written answers

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was established in 2015 response to significant concerns around a specific type of institution, namely mother and baby homes. The investigation was framed to provide a clear emphasis on the experiences of women and children who spent time in these institutions. Initially the public focus was very narrow and related to concerns around the former home in Tuam, Co. Galway. This focus broadened significantly in the course of the extensive public consultation process and inter-departmental review which assisted the then Government in defining the terms of reference for this inquiry. 

Notably, the criteria used to identify Mother and Baby homes included having the main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante- and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children, including both board and lodgings; and an ethos which those running the institutions considered to promote a regime of work, training or education as part of an overall approach to either rehabilitating single mothers, or to give them training for living independently. Religious ethos, or the private or public status of potentially relevant institutions, were not determining factors in the analysis. This is evident in the fact that a number of privately operated institutions were included within the scope of the inquiry. The specific institution raised by the Deputy is not one of the 14 named Mother and Baby Homes, which the Commission was directed to investigate, alongside the representative sample of County Homes selected by the Commission.

Chapter 1 and 2 of the Commission's report describes and lists many of the other types of institutions, including maternity homes, which were in operation in the period in question. A number of maternity homes with addresses on North Circular Road, are identified in this section of the Report, although the Commission did not specifically investigate these separate institutions.

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