Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. I am committed to strong and ongoing engagement with former residents of mother and baby institutions and their advocates. The process of engagement with the collaborative forum, which was established by my predecessor, Katherine Zappone, as a representative advisory body on issues of priority for former residents, their families and supporters, was interrupted by the general election and the Covid-19 pandemic. It was necessary to put meetings of the forum on hold in the context of the restrictions put in place to reduce the spread and impact of Covid-19. A number of members travel to meetings from outside the jurisdiction and some would also be categorised as being in the high-risk category.

Throughout 2020, the members of the forum have been apprised of developments and updated on matters related to the commission of investigation by the secretariat to the group. It is the practice of my Department to inform them of any major announcements prior to their being made public. In the course of the debate on the database legislation, I acknowledged my own shortcomings and those of my Department in terms of our communications and engagement with the collaborative forum. I voiced my commitment to renewed engagement with survivors and advocates, including members of the forum. As a first step towards that, I have spoken to former residents and advocates in this area in recent weeks, including a substantial majority of forum members. I spoke individually to anyone who was happy to speak to me.

I have given my commitment to convening a meeting of the forum in whatever manner is possible following the publication of the report of the commission of investigation. I repeated that commitment in a communication I sent to forum members this morning as part of the notification process of the date for the publication of the report. As I said, I am advancing the publication of the report for the week of 11 January. I have communicated that to the collaborative forum, as well as my intention to meet it thereafter to discuss the report and its ongoing involvement in the process of advising and representing survivors, together with wider issues to do with the legacy, many of which we discussed in the debate on the database legislation.

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