Mother and baby secrecy f ight looms
SURVIVORS’ groups are considering a legal challenge to the controversial legislation covering mother and baby home records.
Protesters staged a demonstration outside Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin after President Michael D Higgins yesterday signed the Bill into law.
He highlighted concerns that ‘are serious and must be addressed’, but said the legislation did not raise a constitutional issue suitable for referral to the Supreme Court.
This has left the door open for groups to challenge the l aw by judicial review.
KRW Law, a group of human rights lawyers representing some of the survivors, said this is under consideration. Solicitor Owen Beattie said: ‘The President’s decision to sign this legislation leaves it open to any citizen to challenge the provisions of the Bill in the future.’
He added: ‘We are now considering with those we represent whether or not to issue a legal challenge to the Bill by way of judicial review.’
The Bill transfers a database of 60,000 records, created during a fiveyear inquiry into the homes, to Tusla, the child and family agency.
The data was gathered by a commission established under the 2004 Commissions of Investigation Act, which stipulates that commission records must be kept under wraps for 30 years. Majella Connolly, an adoptee from the St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home in Dublin, was among the dozens of demonstrators at yesterday’s protest.
She said she felt ‘let down, betrayed and rejected by the Government’.
She added that she was never informed that the records could be sealed when she came forward to give evidence to the inquiry.
Ms Connolly said: ‘It’s terrible that we’ve had to come out today to fight to be able to get my basic information, to find out who I am and where I came from.’
Activist and former Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Ruth Coppinger said the legislation was ‘re-traumatising’ victims. She said: ‘The Government has to act here and has to listen to the groundswell of people on this issue.’ While the Government has insisted the Bill provides access for survivors of mother and baby homes, this claim has been disputed by Opposition TDs, survivors, legal experts and academics.
Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman previously said: ‘ Under current law, the commission feels it is obliged to delete this data – that is why we have to change the law so the data can be saved.’
However, Ms Coppinger said: ‘ If that’s the case, why did the minister rush this through? Why didn’t he actually convene a meeting with interested parties and adoptees? Why did he not take any amendments? That does make people exceptionally suspicious.’
More than 140,000 people have signed a petition calling for the seal to be removed on the documents.
‘Government has to listen on this issue’