The latest chapter of this story begins in June 2015 when the first call went out.

It was perhaps sitting with a morning cup of tea listening to the radio, or while flicking through the local newspaper one evening that many of those who had given birth in mother and baby homes or had themselves been born in such institutions first came across the commission.

The ads placed in the national and local media asked survivors of mother and baby homes to come forward.

Other women no doubt heard about the newly established investigation when they picked up a leaflet while waiting in their GP's surgery or saw a poster in a TD's constituency office. Flyers were even sent out to the Irish Country Women’s Association in a bid to gather as many personal stories as possible.

The message was sent across the water to those who had been adopted by families in the UK and US.

The commission’s terms of reference required it to establish a Confidential Committee to provide a forum for former residents in the institutions under investigation and those who worked in these homes during the relevant period "to provide accounts of their experience in these institutions in writing or orally as informally as is possible in the circumstances".

In the end, more than 550 people – 304 mothers, 228 people who were resident as babies or children and 17 individuals who were involved in other ways – made contact with and spoke to the Confidential Committee.

These often painful lived experiences were heard by one member of the Confidential Committee and one researcher who took notes of the hearing.

The final report, published this month, states that: 

Witnesses were asked for permission to record their evidence on the clear understanding that the recordings would be used only as an aide-memoire for the researcher when compiling the report and would then be destroyed. 

"All such recordings were destroyed after the report was added to the Confidential Committee electronic repository of information."

Given the almost immediate backlash to some of the conclusions in the executive summary of the report, these recordings are now even more important. But they no longer exist.

While stenographers were present when 19 people gave evidence to the full commission, no stenographers were there to fully record the 550 interviews undertaken by the Confidential Committee and it's unclear what sort of notes were taken.

However, Bessborough survivor Noelle Brown said her account been "shoehorned" into the report and did not reflect what she said.

I had to beg for that transcript, which is essentially 222 questions with a lot of box-ticking and there are at least 10 inaccuracies on it.

“They had one job, to transcribe accurately my testimony or extracts from my testimony to fit into this."

Addressing the Dáil the day after the report was published, Micheál Martin said its production had only been possible "because of the depth of courage shown by all those who shared their personal experiences with the commission".

That courage now needs to be respected and cannot be yet again overwritten and repackaged.