Thousands of people may come forward to sue the State and religious orders over forced and illegal adoptions following the settlement of a high-profile case in the High Court.

Any audit of adoption records needs to examine all forms of illegal adoption and not just illegal birth registrations.

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.

Adopted people are being stigmatised in the same manner as their mothers were, decades before, with the Government’s proposed new information and tracing legislation.

Immediate redress for thousands of unaccompanied children who were in mother and baby homes has been rejected by the Government.

An amnesty from prosecution for those involved in facilitating illegal adoptions has been suggested by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

Mother and baby home campaigners have said as many as 180 institutions that dealt with unmarried mothers and children need to be examined by the commission.

Adopted people and natural mothers have given a mixed reaction to new legislation granting them basic information and tracing rights.

More than 13,000 files from St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency have transferred to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency — almost three years after the agency ceased to operate.

Justice for Magdalenes Research and Adoption Rights Alliance have launched a pro-bono legal initiative to assist witnesses drafting statements to the state commission of inquiry.

The number of Irish couples adopting foreign children has plummeted since 2010 because the system has become too complex.

There has been a mixed response to the Government’s planned legislation on adoption, information, and tracing.

Philomena Lee, whose devotion to finding her adopted son inspired a recent film, has called for a more open adoption system here to allow people access their “genetic entitlement”.

Adopted people and natural parents have given a cautious welcome to the Government’s proposed tracing and information legislation.

Adoption campaigners have again expressed concerns that tens of thousands of people could be excluded from the mother and baby home inquiry.

Tens of thousands of people affected by the mother and baby homes scandal risk being excluded from a State investigation into the decades-long hidden crisis.

The terms of reference for the new investigation into mother and baby homes received a broad welcome — but also criticism over its exclusion of Magdalene Laundries and adoptions involving state hospitals.

Adoption campaigners have warned Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly that all six of his predecessors have reneged on promises to give basic tracing rights to adopted people.

Adopted people will have an automatic legal right to their birth certs for the first time if a bill is accepted by the Government.

Adoption rights campaigners have said that allowing natural mothers a veto on contact would set back tracing rights "more than a decade".

I am writing in response to an article by Ann Cahill (Irish Examiner, September 10). In this article Susan Lohan irresponsibly uses the word ‘Holocaust’ as a comparable term in relation to the Church and state abuse in this country.

Adoption campaigners have slammed the Government’s repeated delays in offering basic tracing and information rights to adopted people and natural parents as "Groundhog Day".

Philomena Lee, whose life story inspired the Oscar-nominated film, Philomena, will be one of the main speakers at a two-day adoption conference in UCC on September 4 and 5.

There is no reason for us to believe that the mother-and-baby homes investigation will change anything, even if the State apologises, writes Susan Lohan

Philomena Lee will be among the speakers at a two-day international conference in UCC next month.

A major International conference on adoption law and practice will take place in Cork next month.

Nearly a quarter of the babies born to Irish mothers and exported to the US for adoption were born at the Sean Ross Abbey, Co Tipperary, the convent at the centre of the film Philomena.

Thousands of Irish people "must have been" illegally adopted, with many taken out of the country, the Adoption Authority (AAI) has admitted.

Politicians, many of whom admitted to being heavily lobbied by prospective adoptive parents, have locked horns with children’s rights groups and the Adoption Authority over the sharp drop in children available for intercountry adoption.

Four social justice organisations are now calling for the inquiry into mother-and-baby homes to be widened to include Magdalene laundries and county homes.

Detailed 80-year-old legislation gave Government a clear right to all records on child deaths and adoptions in mother-and-baby homes as they happened — but allowed "charities" to exempt themselves from the oversight.

Adoption, children’s and human rights organisations have welcomed the decision by the Department of Children to set up a statutory commission to investigate practices, deaths, illegal adoptions and vaccine trials at the country’s mother-and-baby homes.

Catholic bishops apologised for the "hurt caused by the Church" as Taoiseach Enda Kenny ordered a wide-ranging investigation into what he branded the "abominable" way mothers and babies were treated in religious-run homes.

No full-scale audit has ever been carried out into tens of thousands of files given to the State by the religious orders which ran Ireland’s mother-and-baby homes.

The religious orders involved in the mother-and-baby homes scandal should be made to pay for an inquiry into what went on, TDs have demanded.

The Bishop of Cork and Ross has joined the Archbishop of Dublin in calling for an independent public inquiry into the deaths of children at religious-run mother-and-baby homes.

Newstalk has reported that experimental drug trials were conducted on at least 290 children across 10 mother-and-baby homes in the 1960s and 70s.

An independent commission of investigation must be set up into deaths at religious-run mother-and-baby homes, should examine claims of illegal adoptions at the facilities, and needs to be completely independent of Church and State.

Amidst the tsunami of speculation about the whereabouts of the bodies of almost 800 children from the former Tuam mother-and-baby home, some sceptics have settled on the belief that 796 bodies could not be contained in this small plot of land.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to launch a full inquiry into claims of a mass baby grave in Galway, after President Michael D Higgins said he was "appalled" at reports about the site and that questions needed to beanswered.

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.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he wants to know if there are more mass baby graves at mother-and-baby homes across the country.