IRELAND
Irish Times
Pamela Duncan
Fri, Jan 9, 2015
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes will cover the living conditions of the women and children who resided in the homes, high mortality rates and vaccine trials conducted on children.
The terms of reference for the investigation, published by the Government this morning, will cover the period between 1922 and 1998 in 14 specified mother and baby homes.
It will also look at the experience in a “representative sample of county homes” and will investigate the nature of the relationship between mother and baby homes and other key institutions including children’s homes, orphanages and adoption societies.
It will also look at the extent to which children’s welfareand best interests were considered in making arrangments for their placement, including the “boarding out” of children, fostering and adoption,both inIreland and abroad and the mothers’ consent in such decisions.
Among the issues the commission will investigate are:
– mortality among mothers and children including the cause and circumstances of the deaths as well as the death rates in the various institutions.
– the entry and exit arrangements for single women into and out of the homes and for the children on leaving the institutions.
– living and social care arrangements in the homes.
– the extent to which residents may have been discriminated against on grounds including race, disability and religion.
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