Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said that the Bon Secours order has an “ethical responsibility” to provide more funding for the exhumation and reburial of the remains of babies at the Tuam Mother and Baby home.

Barnardos has apologised for “any upset caused” after leaflets advertising a support service funded by the Bon Secours Order were placed outside the Tuam babies plot.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone says she will know within weeks how a proposed broadening of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes will look, as she noted: “The dead do not lie.”

Children’s Minister James Reilly yesterday published the terms of reference for an inquiry called on for many years to no avail.

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin says he wants to see all mother-and-baby homes investigated by an independent commission of inquiry with full judicial powers.