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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 13, inclusive, together.

Since taking office, I have issued one formal apology in the Dáil, on behalf of the State, for the hurt experienced by many former residents of mother and baby institutions and county homes. I apologised for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or county home and for the shame and stigma to which they were subjected. As part of that apology, I acknowledged that the State had failed in its duty of care to the mothers and children who spent time in these institutions. This apology was one of the first steps taken by the Government to respond to the findings of the report.

The overall response is being driven by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, who is now working to advance the action plan for survivors and former residents of mother and baby homes and county home institutions. The plan commits to a suite of 22 actions across eight key themes, namely, a survivor-centred approach, a formal State apology, access to personal information, archiving and databases, education and research, memorialisation, restorative recognition, and dignified burial.

Today, the Government took a decision to publish the legislation pertaining to the mother and baby institutions payment scheme along with the national centre for research and remembrance related to institutional trauma, which will be strongly resourced by Government. The information and tracing legislation is making progress in the Oireachtas. The burials legislation also has been published. We spoke earlier about the decision that the former Magdalen laundry on Seán McDermott Street will be the location of the new national centre for research and remembrance. The Secretary General of my Department did a lot of work in that respect and there already has been a great deal of collaboration. That needs to continue.

People sought information on this earlier. The intention is that the centre will be a museum and exhibition space, for which the National Museum of Ireland will have responsibility. It will be an archival, repository and research centre forming part of the National Archives of Ireland. The latter will be responsible for, and will be resourced so to do, to bring together all the archives pertaining to mother and baby homes, industrial schools and Magdalen laundries. It will become a centre for academic research, allow for access and will be a centre for solemn reflection and remembrance. Remote access to digital records will be made available because we are conscious that there must be access to these records from all over the country. That availability will be made easy. We will work further with Deputies on this.

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