The religious order behind three of Ireland’s largest and most notorious mother-and-baby homes is unable to confirm how many children were buried on the sites or if they were all buried in coffins.

Once again, it has taken international press headlines to make the Government address a dirty little secret the State has been aware of decades.

Child death rates in three mother-and-baby homes that were run by religious orders were as high as 50% during the 1940s.

The Government has bowed to national and international pressure over the scandal of the death of 4,000 babies who were buried in unmarked, unconsecrated and mass graves at homes for unmarried mothers.

Religious orders around the country are being urged to open infant burial sites to the public.

SOME 15,000 adoption files held by the Sacred Heart Convent at Bessborough in Cork have yet to be transferred to the Health Service Executive (HSE) — two months after the initial deadline for the transfer.

SOME 15,000 adoption files, including those relating to controversial vaccine trials carried out on children at a mother-and-baby home run by the Sacred Heart Convent at Bessborough in Cork, have yet to be transferred to the HSE.