Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the two witnesses, Ms Ansbro and Ms Carthy, for that good information provided. Last month, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties asked the UN to request that the Government set up an independent investigation into mother and baby homes and the illegal adoption in Ireland in the 20th century. Can Ms Ansbro tell me what the UN's response was? I would welcome this. There are too many unanswered questions and I would have difficulties with some of the conclusions from the mother and baby homes commission's report.

It is extremely important that we work with the survivors and their families in the context of access to information. Ms Ansbro and Ms Carthy would have seen, in the context of the mother and baby homes, that the Dáil voted in October to pass the legislation relating access and then we also ensured that the recordings relating to the commission's report were kept. This information needs to get to the survivors and their families. It is important that the communication is from all of us in order that we all can work together. We heard some of the stories this morning and everyone is affected. We all have a role to play.

In the context of the mother and baby homes report, the first of the 22 recommendations put forward is to give survivors access to their files. All of us here have a duty of care to the survivors and the families to make sure they can get that access, but also that they can access information with no barriers or in the way they should. That would be something that all of us have to work on together. I thank our guests for their presentation.