Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are two ways to respond to that. More generally, in terms of the mother and baby homes and the time that work is taking, I have described - as I am aware the Deputy has also - great empathy for the waiting that the people are experiencing. In that context. I believe the Deputy is aware that I have taken a number of other actions to engage with the primary stakeholders and particularly, most recently, moving towards the establishment of a collaborative forum of 20 representatives, stakeholders, who will come together and take a look at key issues that they are concerned about and make recommendations to me while we await the report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes due in February of next year.

Second, regarding Tuam, as the Deputy will be aware, the consultation process has concluded. The results of that are being discussed by an interdepartmental working group this week. In addition to that, the special rapporteur, Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, provided me recently with a report on the human rights implications in terms of the issues particularly for families regarding what happened in Tuam. I believe the Deputy and other Members are aware - it was in the public domain - of a questioning of some of the conclusions of the expert group that I put together in order to offer options to the people to consider in their consultation in terms of technologies that can be used for determining DNA identification. I then asked my expert group to take a look at the submission presented to Galway County Council in terms of the consultation process by other experts in the field and they have come back to me recently with their views on that matter as well. A number of items are coming into me and I hope, as quickly as I can, to go to Government with recommendations on the basis of that work. As I said, an interdepartmental working group is meeting this week in order to examine those issues.

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