A State Commission has found that the bodies of hundreds of children from one Dublin mother and baby institution were used in anatomical research up to the late 1970s.

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 State commission into the Grace foster abuse scandal has been severely criticised by the families of victims for being overly “hostile and adversarial”.

A senior HSE manager tried to sack the whistle-blower who revealed the Grace foster abuse scandal in a detailed legal letter which was proven to involve entirely “fabricated” claims.