Dr. Maeve O'Rourke:

I will make one point on how the individuals died. I reiterate that in a situation of institutionalised abuse and conditions of neglect or other human rights violations, of particular importance is the clear separation of mothers from children, the denial of the opportunity to look after their child and their essentially being detained in a different part of the institution. Those are part of the circumstances that people want investigated and have a right to have investigated. It is not simply what is written on the death certificate; it is also the surrounding circumstances that are relevant to the inquest.

I will also add one point on international best practice, which is something I am known for promoting. As I have said previously, we need to emulate the Stasi Records Agency. This approach has been noted by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-recurrence, in other words, the special rapporteur on transitional justice, to be international best practice for archiving and records access in the context of dealing with gross and systematic human rights violations. The Government states it is rushing forward a Bill on access to information. This cannot be just about one certain group. It has to be about the rights of families to information. It must not only be about access to personal files but also access to the entire administrative archives that have been created by commissions of inquiry and effectively sealed.

Taking the Bill in good faith, if its aim really is to assist families of the deceased, I do not see how that aim could ever be realised in the absence of full unfettered access to all records relating to oneself, one’s family members and the administrative system.

That is really important. It was completely interesting and natural that we actually opened this entire session by Senator Seery Kearney asking about whether all the families have access to all the information they need even to begin to engage.