Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 June 2015
793. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health the reason an internal Health Service Executive report in relation to the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, County Cork, commissioned in 2012 as part of the McAleese inquiry into the Magdalen laundries, was not passed on to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs; and the action that was proposed on foot of same. [22034/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Department of Health and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs were represented on the Magdalen Laundries Interdepartmental Committee chaired by Dr. Martin McAleese.
I am aware that the Health Service Executive provided a draft report on the Bessboro Mother and Baby Home to the secretariat of the Committee. The representatives of the two Departments received a copy of the draft report at that time, when the Committee was examining routes of entry into Magdalen Laundries (including from mother and baby homes). The author of the report advised that the report's conclusions remained conjecture pending further forensic validation and I understand that the HSE subsequently advised that aspects of the report on Bessboro had been referred to the National Director of Quality and Patient Safety within the HSE.
As Deputy Daly will be aware, the Government has established the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters, chaired by Judge Yvonne Murphy, to provide a full account of the experiences of woman and children who lived in mother and baby homes over the period 1922-1998 in accordance with the detailed Terms of Reference approved by the Government.
