IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
Adoption rights campaigners have said “serious questions” need to be answered as to why concerns raised by the HSE about Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in 2012 were not acted upon at the time.
A number of adoption groups, human rights bodies, and politicians were reacting to the report, which expressed concerns that death records may have been falsified so children could be “brokered in clandestine adoption arrangements” at home and abroad.
It also revealed that, between 1934 and 1953, a total of 478 children are listed as having died in the institution.
Independent TD Clare Daly said “serious questions” needed to be answered about why the concerns raised by the HSE in 2012 were not acted upon then.
“This horrendous report absolutely vindicates adoption rights campaigners who have consistently called for illegal adoption practises to be fully investigated,” said Ms Daly.
Independent senator and former Children’s Rights Alliance chief executive Jillian van Turnhout questioned why the children’s minister and the Oireachtas were not informed of the report when an inquiry was announced on the issue last year.
“I believe this should have been in the public domain before now,” she said. “We should have known of the existence of this report. We continually show we have not learned any lessons on this issue.”
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