‘We have lost faith in minister over tapes’
Survivors of homes aghast at suggestion they can rectify transcripts
MOTHER and baby home survivors say they have ‘no faith’ in Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman’s rectification process if deleted audio recordings taken by the Commission of Investigation cannot be recovered.
They expressed their anger at the Commission’s decision to delete 550 recordings of their first-hand accounts without written consent. The uncertainty of whether these recordings can be fully recovered or not has been described as ‘wholly disrespectful’ and ‘beyond belief’.
Many survivors were unhappy with the final report issued last month, saying it downplayed their ill-treatment and did not reflect the testimony they gave.
A campaign was also launched calling on Mr O’Gorman to ensure the Commission does not dissolve on February 28, to enable the Data Commissioner and An Garda Síochána to investigate the handling of evidence presented to the Commission.
Before the Joint Committee on Children, Mr O’Gorman said that any survivor who feels their account is inaccurate can contact his department to rectify it.
Noelle Brown, a survivor of Bessborough Mother and Baby home, told the Irish Mail on Sunday that this solution is not fit for purpose: ‘How could we do that, we don’t have access to our original transcripts?’ she asked.
‘We gave our accounts in 2017. We know our stories but we need to see that what we said word for word was transcribed accurately. I can’t speak on behalf of other survivors but I’m not going to go back and give my testimony all over again.
‘The trust has been broken, we’d have no faith in that system, we have no faith in the Commission, and I personally have no faith in Roderic O’Gorman to be quite honest, because he’s not dealing with this accurately, he really isn’t.’
Ms Brown said it shouldn’t be up to survivors to sort out the mess.
‘It’s not our job to sort this out. A mess was made and the Commission is responsible and the State is responsible because they paid the Commission to do that job and they should be sorting this out.’
Ms Brown did not receive her transcript from the Commission and instead received a questionnaire with boxes ticked underneath that did not accurately reflect the information she shared. Many survivors have not received their transcripts, despite their requests.
Adoption Rights Alliance spokeswoman Susan Lohan said if Mr O’Gorman is asking survivors to contact his department to rectify their accounts: ‘It’s game over for the report, you might as well tear it up’. She added: ‘In this case, he’ll have to give every single witness a copy of their testimony and he would have to confirm where in the report their testimony is reflected and they would have to draft up correcting statements. It would take incredible coordination.’
Human rights lawyer and NUI Galway lecturer Dr Maeve O’Rourke said: ‘We shouldn’t be relying on asking survivors to give their accounts all over again. You shouldn’t be dissolving the Commission until they produce the original audio recordings.
‘The report can’t stand without the people having a copy of their full transcript. Being able to give the minister a new statement is no substitute for the fact that this report appears to have been written
‘I’m not going to give my testimony all over again’
‘It’s not our job to sort this out’
without reference to a lot of what people actually said.’
An online protest in relation to the deletion of the recordings was held yesterday. Paul Redmond of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors told the MoS: ‘A lot of people have said the accounts that are in the report are not what they gave to the Commission’.
Mr Redmond feels that the Commission doesn’t seem to be clarifying any of the controversial issues and he said that many people in the community are upset at the Commission and Judge Murphy.