Roderic O’Gorman says the Commission have told him that “they acted in good faith in what they did”. But he says he has engaged with the AG on the destruction of tapes.
— Elaine Loughlin (@Elaine_Loughlin) February 16, 2021
The Minister says if the Commission is extended for the purposes of an investigation, the commission would have to retain its archive. Jennifer Whitmore points out that parts of the archive have been destroyed.
— Elaine Loughlin (@Elaine_Loughlin) February 16, 2021
This afternoon
Oireachtas Children Committee.
Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman is taking questions on the deletion of witness testimony from the Mother and Baby Home report.
Watch live here.
Earlier...
Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman
This morning.
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has defended the deletion of audio files of witness testimony at the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.
Many survivors say their testimonies were changed and the Data Protection Commissioner has asked the commission to provide a legal basis for the deletion of the records.
Via RTÉ News:
In a letter sent to the committee last week, Mr O’Gorman said the commission asked for witnesses’ permission to record their testimonies on the clear understanding that they would only be used as an aide memoire for compiling the report and would then be destroyed.
Mr O’Gorman said that while he did not speak for the commission, this approach was taken in order to protect people who wanted to engage confidentially with the inquiry.
“In the absence of such arrangements, those whom the State wished to encourage to engage with the process might have been inhibited from ever disclosing information. Such inhibition could have defeated the very objective of establishing the inquiry.”
Minister O’Gorman will appear before the Oireachtas Children Committee at 4pm.
Deletion of witness recordings at Mother and Baby Homes Commission defended (RTÉ)
Yesterday: ‘Time Is Not A Luxury That Many Survivors Have’
I really cannot understand why audio containing survivor testimony would be destroyed. It’s disconcerting to think that such a decision could be made – saddening in fact. Such recordings are of enormous importance and should be held in perpetuity for the time when memory fades. We need this direct testimony. We need to remember. More significantly, what sort of message does this send out to the survivors themselves? It’s sickening and I cannot understand how anyone could defend it.
Its almost like they are trying to make sure certain people who may be culpable are provided cover until such time as they shuffle off this mortal coil.
But surely no, this cannot be!
I don’t suppose they considered that it might be important to give people a choice.
Imagine. I just hope that the air the story seems to get.. little though it is. .will be enough to sustain its place in the news stream. Local community actions and individual county accountabity might help to ensure we get to see this pushed all the way it needs to go for those people who are effected by it.. and no less than this is owed by the sitting reps of these various organisations. I still have belief that the tricks that were played by ffg for decades will be… wherever they are employed.. shown ineffective in a state where compassion is not a penance to be paid but a character of our people
I just don’t understand why the commission are protecting child killers from decades ago. Is it just a knee jerk ‘protect establishments’ reaction? I don’t get what’s to gain from it?
I think I’d prefer to believe the people who gave the testimonies, about the recordings.
O’Gorman I believe is a liar.
Were his lips moving?
If so, then you are probably on the right path with that assessment above.
I don’t think he’s a liar per se….but I think he’s probably a clever fella who like many other clever fellas before him find in Leinster House thigs work differently when you’re whipped and working for FFG and managed/monitored by the likes of Prone
looks to me that he’s been shafted with a very very hot FF potato and doesn’t quite possess the cute hoor smarts he needs for political self-preservation…and I would have preferred if he’d acted like a human being here and done the right thing in dealing with this matter and suffered the consequences served up by his whip overlords as opposed to trying to play a game he’s clearly not equipped for and ending up looking disingenuous and completely botching one of the most sensitive and important enquiries in the history of the state
a masterclass in whitewash
Roderic “Bucket of White Wash” O’Gorman.
He and his Greenwash party, the lickspittles of FFFG are vile.
I didn’t think they could stoop any lower but to treat the survivors in this manner is unforgivable. I look forward meeting them when they come crawling in the mire begging for a vote in the next election. They will be very, very sorry they called!
Called? To your home?
Hot tip – disconnect your door bell. Mine stopped working a few years ago and being me I just took ages to get around to replacing. By the time I was ready to go and get a new one and install it I had realised that in this day and age without mobiles being ubiquitous, any call to my door was unsolicited and therefore unwanted. So no more door bell for me, life got much better since.
If its someone I am expecting they can call me or text in advance, otherwise I have no interest in signing up to your bat rescue charity, I am already a user of x, y or z service and yes, I will definitely vote for you at the next election (which is what I say to all candidates who call to my door – yes, yes & yes.)
I can only conclude that they are afraid that if the truth gets out it will be followed by lawsuits against the state and they are trying to avoid that, bunch of lady parts
How was this recorded?
If it was saved to a hard disk it would be recoverable
unless they burnt the disks
Data from disks isn’t recoverable if its overwritten. But if I had the power, I’d be seizing those for forensic investigation. See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3227#section-3 for best practice
Will the Data Protection Commission throw any light on this?
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40218473.html
how obvious does this cover-up have to get? what are FF afraid of??
The members of the Commission can be removed and replaced, as it appears they have
utterly failed in their function to establish the facts and to preserve the evidence and
statements given orally, are we dealing with the hidden hand of certain still powerful
institutions and people to hide the truth in order to avoid justice and repraration
Roderick O’Connor handling of the entire process since he took charge of this Dept
is a national disgrace, and if there was not a lockdown there would be wide scale protests