Mother and baby home survivors will receive a state apology this Wednesday by Taoiseach

A State apology will be made by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, to the survivors of mother and baby homes.

The apology will be made in the Dáil as the Dáil reconvenes after the Christmas break this Wednesday.

The Cabinet meet needs to approve a report by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation into the homes and the apology will come only after this.

Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children had previously predicted and warned the Cabinet that the publication of the report will lead to a state apology.

Prior to its publication, Mr O’Gorman will brief survivors of the homes on the contents of the 4,000-page report. A counselling service will also be made available to survivors.

An apology or compensation from the state is yet to reach the mother and baby homes. While the industrial schools and to those held in Magdalene Laundries with survivors receiving compensation through redress boards recived an apology by the State earlier.

According to the reports the Mother and Baby Homes Bill passed last year sparked an intensive campaign to unseal the archive of the Commission, particularly the personal testimonies provided by survivors of the mother and baby homes.

Catherine Corless, a local historian found that 796 children were buried in an unmarked mass grave in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, Co Galway. the report was ordered by the government in the light of this findings.

As per the commission’s fifth interim report in April 2019,confirmed that the Tuam garden contains human remains which date from the period of the operation of the Tuam children’s home so it is likely that a large number of the children who died in the Tuam home are buried there.