Peadar Tóibín
Question:51. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach if he will provide an update on the investigation into a matter (details supplied). [2774/24]
View answerTuesday, 30 January 2024
Questions (51)
Written answers
In advance of the Government considering the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation on Mother and Baby Homes certain information relating to matters in the Report was disclosed in a newspaper article.
In that context, the then Taoiseach requested that an investigation be carried out. The investigation was conducted by a senior official in my Department and received full co-operation from those concerned. The investigation was concluded and reported to the then Taoiseach in December 2022.
Given that information relevant to the matters in the Report had been circulated widely in advance of the Government’s meeting, the investigation concluded that it was not possible to establish with any certainty whether or by whom information relating to matters in the Report may have been disclosed in advance of the Government’s consideration of the Report.
In conjunction with the conduct of the investigation, further work is being carried out to enhance the arrangements currently in place for the management of documents for Government meetings and the Cabinet Handbook is currently being reviewed to be updated as necessary.
On the publication of the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation on Mother and Baby Homes, the Tánaiste and I acknowledged the State’s failures and apologised for the profound wrong visited on Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby institution or a county home.
The Government’s focus since the publication of the Commission’s report has been to put in place a suite of actions aimed at responding to the priority needs and concerns of those who spent time in a mother and baby institution or a county home.
Minister O’Gorman and his Department have made very significant progress in advancing the Government’s Action Plan and the work is continuing on implementation.