Peadar Tóibín
Question:11. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach further to Parliamentary Question No. 44 of 23 January 2024, the precise date on which the investigation was concluded and reported to the then Taoiseach. [6506/24]
View answerWednesday, 21 February 2024
Questions (11)
Oral answers (4 contributions)
In advance of the Government considering the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in January 2021, certain information that related to matters therein 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 it received full co-operation from all concerned. The investigation was concluded and the outcome was reported to the then Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, on 16 December 2022.
Given that information and documentation relevant to the matters in the commission's report had been circulated widely in advance of the Government meeting, the investigation concluded that it was not possible to establish with any certainty whether information relating to the matters in the report may have been disclosed in advance of the Government's consideration of the report or by whom any such information would have been disclosed.
As the Deputy will recall, on the publication of the commission's final report, the Tánaiste and I acknowledged the State's failures and apologised for the profound wrong that was visited on some Irish mothers and their children who ended up in mother and baby institutions. I said at the time that the survivors of those institutions were a stolen generation because the State stole from them the lives they could have had. Although it is late in the day, the State now has an opportunity to make restitution.
Since the publication of the commission's report, the Government has strongly prioritised giving effect to actions aimed at responding to the priority needs and concerns of former residents of mother and baby institutions or county homes. Those actions include memorialisation; improved access to health services, counselling and housing; access to records and information about residents, including birth certificates and medical records; financial reparations; and a repository to archive documents relating to residential institutions to enable study to be conducted and assist with advocacy.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, and his Department have made very significant progress in advancing the various aspects of the Government's action plan, and the work is continuing on its implementation.
The leaking of the report into the mother and baby homes was very wrong. It caused considerable distress among the survivors of the homes. This investigation is very strange, and that is God's honest truth. In response to the parliamentary question submitted by Aontú, the Taoiseach stated the internal investigation into the leaking of the report on mother and baby homes was completed in December 2022. It is bizarre that it took 14 months for the Government to complete it and make this public. It is bizarre that it took an Aontú parliamentary question for the Government to decide it was noteworthy to the public.
The timeline is also very interesting. I asked the former Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin, on 13 December whether it was he who leaked the report on the mother and baby homes to the media. He did not answer that question but said that there was no update on the report at the time. The current Taoiseach is saying the former Taoiseach received the report three days later. He is saying he received it the day before he assumed the office of Taoiseach, which insulates him from any responsibility in this regard. Those timelines are very hard to understand. I am referring to the Government's decision to tell people about the report only as a result of an Aontú question, to the former Taoiseach's statement that he did not know the answer to the question, and to his receipt of the report three days later, the day before the Taoiseach assumed office.
Why did the former Taoiseach or the current one not think it noteworthy to tell the survivors of the mother and baby homes about the results of the investigation into the leaking of the report? Why did they find out only as a result of an Aontú question? The Taoiseach mentioned senior officials who participated in the investigation. We know Martin Fraser was the senior official involved in the investigation initially but he changed job during the timeframe, becoming the ambassador for Ireland in London. Who took on his role? What were the terms of reference? Who was questioned in the investigation? Given that what was leaked was part of a general report that heavily quoted the former Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, was he questioned about it? This is significant because the leaking of reports to individuals in the Cabinet is not new. I once asked the Taoiseach in this Chamber whether he ever leaked reports, my question being related to the contractual document provided to the doctors' representative organisation. The Taoiseach said he did not at that level. We need to have a system with administrative transparency and also accountability in terms of people who do wrong regarding their responsibility to provide information to survivor organisations in the first instance.
I emphasise to the Deputy that, as would be usual, the investigation was carried out by the Department. I was not involved in conducting it, directing it or influencing it, nor was the then Taoiseach. It is important to make clear, although it should be self-evident, that any process such as this should be allowed to be conducted without any interference or otherwise in the process.
Given the cross-cutting nature of many issues the Government considers, it is important to understand that there are often numerous Departments and many people with access to, and that feed into, discussions and documents prepared for the Government. This, of course, means a large number might be encompassed in an investigation like this one. In this case, it could have been 50 people. As I have said, I was not involved in the investigation. I did not conduct or direct it and did not seek to interfere with it in any way. That said, I have no reason to believe there is anything to read into the completion date of the investigation other than that it was finalised at the time in question and reported to the then Taoiseach, who had asked for it to be conducted. It is standard practice for a Taoiseach and Minister to try to clear his or her desk before changing office. I know it is something I have done.
Conspiracy theories abound and are increasingly popular, but I can honestly say to the House that I have no idea who was responsible for the leak or what their motivations were. There are rules on briefings and documents in government. Different documents can have a different status, of course. Some things are official secrets and some are not.
Some things are the subject of Cabinet papers, others are not. In certain circumstances, Ministers have the authority to release information. Indeed, if they do not, who does?
Why 14 months and why not for survivors?