The Government will have to locate the remains of thousands of children who died in Ireland’s mother and baby home system when it ratifies the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearance (CED).

The Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation may be seeking evidence for the allegation that unmarried motherhood was considered akin to a criminal act.

A number of prominent politicians have called on the Government to establish an immediate State inquiry into forced and illegal adoption.

A report examining if it is possible to start taking DNA samples from survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home to help identify hundreds of children who died there will be published "in the coming weeks".

Children's minister Katherine Zappone warned the collaborative forum on mother and baby homes against leaking its final report saying it would "damage" its work and "undermine its integrity".

In Ireland, as well as in Mexico in recent years, people were disappeared. The difference is that here, the disappeared were children, writes

The report on burials practices in mother and baby homes is to be referred to An Garda Síochána to see if any of the issues raised warrant criminal investigation.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission says it is legally prohibited from informing any surviving family members of the children they have found burial locations for.

Limerick woman, Ann O'Gorman, who had a little girl called Evelyn at Bessborough when she was just 17 years old, says that gardaí need to intervene in order to question members of the religious order who are still alive.

Report took five years but runs to just 100 pages; Fails to look at causes or registration of deaths

The sister of a baby boy who died in Bessborough only found out that he was buried in a former famine grave via the Commission's burials report.

The investigation into the mother and baby homes was expected to be a journey into history and past practices long since laid to rest.

The Taoiseach says society needs to atone for the treatment of mothers and babies kept in institutions.

The bodies of some of the children who died in Mother and Baby Homes were used for anatomical studies.

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has said the State Commission has found no physical or documentary evidence of systematic burials at Bessborough, but considers that it is highly likely that burials took place there.

The fifth interim report on Mother and Baby Homes is expected to focus on burial arrangements for the women and children who died in the institutions.

A new package of health measures has been announced for former residents of Mother and Baby Homes.

Maintenance work is being carried out on a historic structure which backs onto a burial plot on the grounds of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission confirmed that the excavation work began on Monday and is expected to last three weeks.

Historian Catherine Corless is calling on the commission set up to investigate Mother and Baby Homes to publish its report when it is completed.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission was set up in 2015 and was due to make its final report next month. There is no end in sight, though, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

The survey is expected to last a number of days. It is understood that the survey is being carried out on foot of information received by the Commission from a member of the public.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said that the Government could have refused a request from the Commission investigating Mother and Baby homes to extend its deadline to deliver its final report.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation has sought its second one-year extension, before it will publish its final report.

The report of the Government's scoping exercise into illegal birth registrations has been delayed for a second time and will not be finalised now until April - almost a year after it was announced.

From the Belfast rape trial to the historic referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, to the shocking CervicalCheck scandal and concerted interventions to address the gender pay gap, 2018 has been quite the roller coaster when it comes to women’s advancement, writes Political Correspondent Elaine Loughlin

The Taoiseach is following the well-trodden path of treating the Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes, and illegal adoption as separate scandals, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

It was surprising to hear Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone say she was doing what she was doing with regard to the Tuam babies scandal because it was right.

The Church must accept responsibility and make reparation for its part in mother and baby homes which were a very shameful chapter of Irish history, Minister for Children Katherine Zappone told the Pope.

Minister Katherine Zappone has shared what she said to Pope Francis when she met him outside Áras an Uachtaran on Saturday.

A large crowd has gathered for a silent vigil in Co Galway to coincide with the Papal mass in Dublin.

The first meeting of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes is taking place today.

A recent RTÉ documentary underlined how the poor treatment of women does not belong solely in the past, and there are modern injustices that must be addressed, says Linda Connolly.

The decision not to extend the Caranua fund for victims of abuse to former residents of mother and baby homes is disappointing.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that women wrongly excluded from the Magdalene Laundries redress scheme will be receive redress payments “without delay”.

Ireland's strict abortion laws have come under scrutiny in Amnesty International's annual report.

Bessborough burying children in unmarked graves as late as 1990 makes this a contemporary scandal, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

Adoption campaigners have queried why the Mother and Baby Homes Commission has taken three years to issue a public call for information relating to the burials of children who died at the Bessborough home.

The author of a new book about the Tuam Mother and Baby Home has expressed deep concern over delays in its investigation.

The religious order which ran the Sean Ross Abbey mother and baby home has put a large part of the campus up for sale, just six months after placing the Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork on the market.