Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

One of the main aims of the commission is to find out exactly why children were placed in these institutions. Many were put in for very spurious reasons and ended up with criminal records as adults for something they may or may not have done as children. That is why we have included subparagraph (ia) in section 4(1)(a)(i), which states, "to inquire into the manner in which children were placed in, and the circumstances in which they continued to be resident in, institutions during the relevant period,". We are satisfied, as is Mr. Justice Ryan, that this allows him to look at the operation of the courts and the Judiciary in a general sense to see how this came about.

The amendment, however, specifically mentions judges, thus crossing into their constitutional independence as individual judges, which is not the intention. We cannot look into individual cases to ask why a particular judge placed someone in an institution. We need to know the general circumstances of the time and how the courts worked in a way that allowed this to happen — that will be the focus of the commission of inquiry — rather than looking at the individual. We are satisfied that what we want is provided for in section 4(1)(a).