Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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121. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the inquiry into the mother and baby homes does not include Westbank Orphanage, County Wicklow. [46774/14]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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In developing the Terms of Reference for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters, due regard has been given to the clear emphasis on “Mother and Baby Homes” in the motion approved by Dáil Eireann on the 11th June 2014. The investigation will thoroughly examine a broad range of matters in relation to the experience of mothers and children who were resident in a Mother and Baby Home over the period 1922-1998. As the Deputy will be aware these Homes have not been the central focus of previous statutory investigations.

The approach taken to ensure the requisite level of specificity has been to identify Mother and Baby Homes for the purposes of this investigation. The criteria used include having the main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante- and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children, including both board and lodgings; and an ethos which those running the institutions considered to promote a regime of work, training or education as part of an overall approach to either rehabilitating single mothers, or to give them training for living independently. On the basis of the available information, the institution raised by the Deputy did not provide this type of service for mothers and babies.

However, it is not accurate to describe these institutions as being excluded from the Commission's work. During the course of consultations, it became clear to me that the issue of entry and exit pathways of both women and children to these Homes raised further questions which needed to be examined. For this reason, the Commission is tasked with examining the extent to which other entities, including children’s homes, orphanages and adoption societies, were part of these pathways. This examination will identify patterns of referral, and the practices and arrangements for placing children, including where an intermediary organisation was involved in arranging a subsequent placement. It is certainly open to the Commission to examine the role played by the institution raised by the Deputy in this strand of its investigations. Issues to be examined by the social history module also include the role and interrelationships of a range of institutions, including homes for infants or children.

I do appreciate that since the decision to establish this investigation was announced there have been calls for the inclusion of a broad range of matters. At least some of these issues are unrelated to the intended remit of this investigation. In addition, and in the interests of maintaining the required focus and specificity on Mother and Baby Homes, it must be recognised that previous inquiries have already examined some related issues. This includes the comprehensive investigation into historical child abuse already conducted by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Its remit was to inquire into the abuse of children in a broad range of care settings, including childrens' homes, during the period 1940 to 1999.

The Government is satisfied that the proposed Terms of Reference Government provide an ambitious and appropriately focused set of tasks which can be accomplished by this Commission within a realistic timeframe.