Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McDonald. Today is International Women's Day, and as I have said on many occasions, if Ireland was declared by W.B. Yeats to be "no country for old men", then the legacy and more recent issues mentioned by the Deputy would suggest that it was positively dangerous for girls and women. We have had the experience of the ignoring of the Magdalene women for many years. We have had the Government's establishment of the surgical symphysiotomy payment scheme because of the treatment of women. The Government also set up the statutory commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and related matters, as well as a commission to look into the case of Grace.

Deputy Catherine Connolly raised the question of the interim report with me previously. There have been many calls to extend the commission's terms of reference in recent days. I am conscious of these calls and the Government is open to examining what can be done. There is no point in having commissions of investigation if they are not able to do what they are intended to do. That said, we need to reflect carefully and give ourselves some time to get this right. It is a serious matter. I agree that the best approach is to have a scoping exercise, in consultation with the commission itself, to see if broader terms of reference covering more institutions would help to answer the many questions that arise. I note that these and many other questions arose when the original terms of reference were being framed in 2014 and 2015.

The challenge was, and still is, how to balance sufficient coverage of institutions with completing the report in a reasonable period. The commission is now two years into a three-year programme of work under its current terms of reference. We need to be conscious that extending its terms of reference will inevitably have an impact on any timescale that has been set out. The more we now add to its coverage, the longer the commission is likely to take to complete its work. This is not to say that this cannot or should not be done. However, we must be very clear about the implications for the commission's timescale and how long it will take to give us the answers that we very much want to have, particularly in the context of the feelings of those who are now in their senior years.

The first issue is for us to be satisfied that any additional matters of concern are not already within the existing wide scope of the commission. The commission has significant autonomy to follow wherever the investigation takes it and to make any recommendations it considers necessary in that regard. In fact, the commission's terms of reference require it to submit a report specifically on this issue to the Minister. Should a decision be made to examine further questions, there may also be a need to consider the appropriate legal vehicle to take that forward.

The commission was tasked with investigating a very specific issue and its report on this specific issue is still in preparation. The commission has not made its formal findings yet, although we know the outcome of the specific analysis of the site in Tuam. Clearly, the coroner, the Garda and the commission have independent responsibility for the work they are doing.

See this speech in context