The Department of Children and Youth Affairs has again defended its decision not to publish the report of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has rejected any suggestion that the decision not to publish the report of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes was due to its scathing criticism of the Government’s adoption tracing legislation.

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).

Tusla assesses the potential “harm” that could be caused to birth families before it decides on whether or not to release personal information to adopted people about their early lives.

Survivors of the Bethany Home have expressed their disappointment at the Government's unwillingness to commit a ‘fast track’ redress scheme for ageing survivors of the institution.

Bethany Home survivors have called on the Mother and Baby Homes Commission to release the details of additional burials it has found in relation to children who died in the care of the institution.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission is obliged under human rights law to provide information to family members about where their relatives are buried — despite claiming it is legally prohibited from doing so.

As is often the case in matters as sensitive as those facing the Mother and Baby Homes Commission conflicts of interest arise.

A religious order which sanctioned the near total demolition of an historic structure in Cork has agreed to reinstate it in full within four months of the rebuilding work starting.

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".

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.

So that’s Friday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

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.

Survivors of the Tuam mother and baby home have said the only way the causes of death of the children who died in the institution can be established is by holding inquests for every child.

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

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission has said it is “very difficult to comprehend” how the Order which ran Bessborough has no information as to where over 800 children who died in their care are buried.

So that’s Wednesday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

The burial place of well over 800 children who died in the care of Bessborough Mother and Baby Home is unknown - despite "very extensive inquiries and searches".

Four years after the establishment of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, the focus of its investigation has clearly moved away from Tuam and onto other headline-generating institutions like Bessborough and Sean Ross Abbey, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

Members of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes have expressed their disappointment at the Government's refusal to publish its full report.

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.

Members of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes have expressed their disappointment at the Government's refusal to publish its full report.

A report on burial practices at Ireland’s main mother and baby homes has been described as “substantial” and will be published once survivors groups have been briefed.

A religious Order has been told to prepare plans for the full reinstatement of an historic folly on the grounds of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork following its near-total demolition earlier this month.

Controversial works which have resulted in the near total demolition of the historic ‘folly’ near a burial plot at the site the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home have stopped.

Cork City Council investigators have visited the site of the former Bessborough mother and baby home to ascertain if the destruction of the historic ‘folly’ near a burial plot warrants an enforcement action.

The almost complete demolition of an historic folly near a burial plot on the grounds of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork has been described as an outrageous attack on the city’s DNA.

The State’s proposal to seal the records of the Laffoy/Ryan commission of inquiry and its associated bodies for 75 years is unjustified and wrong, writes

Children's ​Minister ​Katherine Zappone ​confirmed the plans after the Cabinet granted a one-year extension to the Commission to publish its final report - which will now be due in February 2020.

A mother who lost her child to adoption through a mother and baby home, maternity hospital, and adoption agency, has been refused access to her personal records by the state inquiry investigating the issue.

The Government’s planned legislation to allow people separated from their families through adoption to have access to their own records and histories has been slammed as “unfit for purpose” by a civil liberties group.

Adoption rights campaigner Paul Redmond has resigned from the Mother and Baby Homes Collaborative Forum, calling it “a cynical, time-wasting farce”.

The potential state exposure over Tuam is clear. It could be accused of being a party to an ongoing criminal offence, writes Conall Ó Fátharta

Adoption campaigners want an immediate inquiry into the scale of illegal adoptions — a call they have repeatedly made for years.

The focus on one institution — Tuam — and one issue — baby deaths — has proved to be convenient for the Government but the spotlight needs to shift to the glaring elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. The issue will simply not go away, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

Evidence of multiple illegal adoptions — with at least one child sold to the US from the Tuam mother and baby home — was uncovered by the HSE as early as 2012.

An ‘Irish Examiner’ investigation published last month revealed that three grave plots in St Finbarr’s cemetery in Cork City contain the remains of at least 21 children — some of which were buried as late as 1990. Conall Ó Fátharta argues that the failure by state agents to investigate the deaths raises wider questions about the terms of reference of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) have refused to say whether all the infant burials discovered in unmarked graves in a Cork city cemetery will be investigated.

A number of requests by mother and baby home survivors to have their evidence heard in public have been refused by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

Tusla has refused to say if it informed the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of evidence it has held since 2003 that children from the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were buried in unmarked graves as recently as 1990.

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.

The Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) has said it was “not aware” that a formerly accredited adoption agency owned an unmarked grave in which children were buried as late as 1990.

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.