Families’ anger leak on mother
TENSIONS are running high in Government after the ‘disrespectful’ leaking of t he Mother and Baby Homes Report – as a probe into how the details became public is now launched.
A full investigation into the leak is set to be discussed by Cabinet today as recriminat i ons abound – with t he Children’s Minister said to be furious over the leak.
The report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation will be officially published today. But some details were already reported in a national newspaper at the weekend.
Micheál Martin has said that the leak was ‘regrettable’ and added that it would be addressed. However, the fallout is deeply sensitive for his office, as the newspaper article featured direct quotes from the Taoiseach himself.
Ministers told the Irish Daily Mail they want Mr Martin to explain why he participated in the controversial newspaper article.
‘If we are conducting an inquiry into a leak to a newspaper, what role should the Taoiseach play in the inquiry when he is quoted throughout the article?’ asked a Cabinet minister.
In the newspaper story, the Taoiseach confirmed that he had read the report, saying that it was ‘shocking and difficult to read’.
A Cabinet source said last night: ‘If the Taoiseach played no role in the leaking of the report, then when he was contacted by the newspaper he would have become aware that it was going to publish before the families were told. Why did he not then contact t he families or make a public statement?
‘And it is not appropriate to signal the intention to make a state apology in the Dáil through a newspaper. I wasn’t aware until I read it.’ The Government Information Service did not respond to a series of questions put to it by this newspaper. The report will today reveal that as many as 9,000 children died in 18 institutions between 1922 and the closure of the last such home in 1998. Mr Martin had been set to make a f ormal State apology to the survivors of the mother and baby homes in the Dáil tomorrow.
However, the Government is now considering delaying that official apology after consulting with the survivors yesterday.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has called for a full investigation into the leak, telling RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne: ‘It’s a problem in Government, it is a problem in the public service, unfortunately, that information once shared beyond a small number of people, sometimes appears in the papers.
‘It’s not an excuse because there is no an excuse for these things. But I think on this occasion, there will be an investigation and hopefully whoever was responsible will be held to account.’
However, Mr Varadkar admitted that such investigations are rarely successful.
Historian Catherine Corless, whose painstaking work led to the discovery of the Tuam babies scandal, said the leaking of the details had ‘ broken the trust’ between s urvivors and t he Government. She said t hat survivors have been treated like ‘second-class citizens’.
And well-known mother and baby home survivor Philomena Lee said the leak ‘will undoubtedly add to the heartache and trauma of those directly affected and I am concerned for the welfare of all’.
Green Party TDs are said to be furious over the leak, with the main tensions in coalition between Fianna Fáil and the Greens.
The deputy responsible for the report, Green TD and Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman, said that he was ‘ deeply angered’ by the leak to the media and that he will seek a full investigation into how it happened.
A senior Cabinet source told the Mail: ‘ Leaking a Cabinet document is very serious. The Greens are rightly furious, it’s been difficult enough for Roder i c [O’Gorman] recently and this won’t help him.
‘There is a lot of speculation about where it came from, but it didn’t look good having the Taoiseach’s quotes throughout the article.’ Green Party TD Patrick
‘It didn’t happen by accident’