Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The new National Maternity Hospital will be paid for by the State and will be owned by the State. It will be paid for by the people and it will belong to the people. That is not the case for the current National Maternity Hospital on Holles Street so there will be a significant change for the better in that regard. I do not know about the issue of indemnity but we have all the records.

It is a good thing that in the past couple of years tens of thousands of records have been transferred from private bodies, charities and adoption agencies to public bodies. It is because of that transfer of records that we have been able to come up with this new information.

In terms of the next steps regarding the other adoption agencies, as I mentioned, there will be a targeted sampling exercise carried out in the first instance. That will take about four months and will be overseen by a quality assured independent reviewer. It will be headed up by Marion Reynolds, who is a former deputy director of social services in Northern Ireland and has expertise in this area. Once that targeted sampling exercise is done, if it is appropriate and right, we will then go on to carry out a full audit of all the records.

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