Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to facilitate our discussion on the commission for mother and baby homes, in particular the legal lifetime of the commission which is due to conclude on 28 February. The report from the commission reveals a very dark and disturbing chapter in our history, a history which none of us should ever forget. It is a piece of our history that should be recorded and archived to ensure that the 550 testimonies which make up the vast majority of survivor evidence is retained and protected.

I appreciate and am aware that the Minister has written to the commission in respect of the audio recordings and tapes allegedly destroyed on the grounds that survivors were promised they would remain anonymous. He and I know that was not the understanding of the survivors. The commission stated that it made clear to survivors that records would be destroyed, but the Minister and I know that in the leaflet presented to them there was no reference to the destruction of tapes or to the records being destroyed. To be fair, how could the Minister pre-empt the destruction of records?

Section 43 of the Commissions of Investigations Act 2004 clearly states that every piece of evidence gathered by a commission of investigation shall be transferred to the relevant Minister. How could the Minister expect or even imagine the deletion of records might happen? Nobody could anticipate that the commission of investigation would breach that clear commitment and destroy evidence without the permission of those who gave it.

The commission never stated it would keep a transcript of what survivors said and that their evidence was to be destroyed without a full transcript. I do not believe that in this day and age, when technology is at its best, that evidence cannot be retrieved. It must be retrieved. We must extend the legal lifetime of the commission.

We must remember that the survivors have rights and under GDPR their data rights have been breached. For that reason alone, we must act now and extend the lifetime of the commission. At the very least, the State owes the survivors the transparency they deserve.

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