Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In regard to Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, they were met at the time. I was Minister for Education and Science during that period and became Minister for Health and Children in 2000. I established the inquiries in question and was the first Minister to open up the dark chapter in our history relating to industrial schools. We put historians into the Department of Education and Science and we put counselling in place for the people who came to access their records. Some of them discovered they had siblings they had never known of because of the way they were separated by the cruelty man or the courts and sent off to these schools. It was horrific what was done to many people.

Ultimately, a redress scheme was established. More crucially, the Department of Health and Children set up a special counselling service that was specifically targeted at survivors of the industrial schools. It took two years to set it up because the Department and the experts said we needed really well-qualified child abuse and sex abuse counsellors who knew what they were doing to staff it. Various support groups were established at the time, the Aislinn centre being one example. We had various State agencies helping with access to education, supports for apartment construction and securing housing. A whole plethora of supports were provided at the time. I understand the Deputy referred to the Caranua fund, which has been ongoing for a number of years. It is coming to an end but we will have a look at it. I am talking to the Minister for Education about that.

Deputy McDonald asked about records relating to the mother and baby homes and the Magdalen laundries. Access to the commission's archive is governed by the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 rather than the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby Homes and certain related Matters) Records, and another Matter, Bill 2020. I have spoken on the record about the fact that if we had not introduced the 2020 Act, the entire database would have been made redundant and been destroyed. It was correct that the legislation passed through the Houses.

The general data protection regulation, GDPR, will apply to the archive. The Attorney General has been emphatic on that point and has clarified it for anybody who needed clarification. Individuals will have a right to apply for access to their own personal data held by the Minister in the archive of records once it is deposited by the commission, which I understand will be in February 2021. Files have also gone to Tusla and people will have access to them there as well. We are currently examining the matter and hope to be in a position to make a comprehensive statement on it at the time of the publication of the mother and baby homes report. That statement will include, for example, the question of where we archive, how we archive and how we tell the story of all these institutions, from the industrial schools to the Magdalen laundries to the mother and baby homes, in a way that does justice to the victims. We have to consult widely in this regard. I was talking to the groups concerned at the weekend and some of them, particularly direct survivors, have different perspectives on how that should be done. We must try to include everyone in the process. It is the Government's intention to create a centre that could help to provide insights to future generations on all of these areas.

In regard to the mother and baby homes, the GDPR prohibits a blanket ban on the processing of personal data. Documents furnished to the Department, when they are deposited with the Minister in February 2021, can be considered in the context of individual requests by data subjects. Those requests must be processed on an individual basis and in accordance with current relevant statute. In terms of the Magdalen laundries, the McAleese committee set out that the archive of the committee's work, which is deposited and stored centrally in the Department of the Taoiseach, would contain only copies of official records identified from across all Departments, State agencies and bodies. The originals of all such identified records have stayed in their original files and locations in order to avoid disturbance to, or destruction of, original or archived files. Access to any personal records can be sought, under the GDPR, from the relevant public bodies, subject to the normal procedures. The committee set out that the archive would also contain certain materials generated by or for the committee in the course of its work, such as correspondence, minutes and some statements and submissions. We will do everything we possibly can in this matter. Our view and disposition is to facilitate access for survivors to their records. No right is absolute, however, and the process is part of the GDPR framework. GDPR stems from European Union law and trumps other regulations.

In regard to the other issues raised by Deputy McDonald, I will follow up on them. The loss of the data device to which she referred was not something that occurred in my Department. This group of questions relates to the data protection unit in my Department. We have gone wide on it, which I accept.

With regard to Deputy Tóibín's questions, I have not investigated leaks from the previous Administration. It would be unprecedented to do so. I have never heard of it happening before that one would routinely go in and start making inquiries about, or having investigations into, previous Governments.

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