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Mother and Baby Home Records Bill must not proceed in its current form

Published: Friday, October 16, 2020

National Women’s Council calls on Government to ensure rights of survivors are respected

The National Women’s Council (NWC) today raised serious concerns in relation to the Mother and Baby Home Records Bill and the way it is currently being rushed through the Oireachtas. NWC called on Senators and TDs to support the amendments to the Bill to ensure that the Minister keeps an entire copy of the archive and creates an index to the records within a month.  NWC calls on the Government not to proceed with the Bill in its current form to ensure the rights of survivors to information and access to their identity are respected. With these ends in mind we wish to see the Minister facilitating requests by survivors for personal information held in the archive and establishing a consultation process to ensure a suitable home for the archive and a process on facilitating public access to the suitably redacted files.

 

Orla O’Connor, Director of NWC said,

“We are very concerned about the Mother and Baby Home Records Bill and the way it is currently being rushed through the Oireachtas. This State has failed so many women and children in this country who suffered immeasurable institutional abuse and trauma. It is our responsibility now – as a minimum – to address the serious concerns the survivors and the families of survivors are raising and ensure that their rights to information and access to their identity are being respected.”


She continued,
 

“We know from our past that if we do not listen to women and take their experiences seriously, women are harmed. We therefore call on all Senators and TDs to support the amendments to the Bill and urge the Government not to proceed with the bill in its current form to allow for the necessary consultation with survivors and the families of survivors.”


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For more information, please contact Laura Pakenham, National Women’s Council (NWC), Tel. 087 702 9015