From the third interim report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission
Yesterday.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission, which was set up in February 2015, published its third interim report.
It states:
“The Commission is continuing to make inquiries about burials and burial records but it appears that this is an area in which it will be difficult to establish the facts.“
It also says it has requested an extension of a year to carry out its work, which means its final report will not be published until February 2019, as opposed to the scheduled date of February 2018.
The four-page report can be read here
Further to this…
Paul Redmond, chairperson of Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, said:
“This is yet another delaying tactic by the Government to deny survivors truth and justice. The current inquiry is already too limited and excludes many survivors and this delay will now enure that thousands more survivors are denied justice by death.”
Clodagh Malone, of Beyond Adoption Ireland, said:
“This is utterly shameful. Our community are heartbroken and devastated. Tears are flowing.”
Derek Leinster, of the Bethany Home Survivors’ Group, said:
“Living survivors must always take priority over inquiries and reports. We need an immediate and final result for the handful of elderly Bethany survivors who are left alive. There are 227 names on the Bethany Memorial in Mount Jerome cemetery and this Government have now added more names of victims to that Memorial by this disgusting delaying tactic.
Related: Difficult to establish facts’ on burials at homes (Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner)