A three-year investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will be conducted following the revelations last year about the deaths of almost 800 children at the Tuam home, the Government confirmed today.

The Government has been advised that at least nine institutions should be included in the mother-and-baby home investigation and that death rates there were "undesirably high".

Deaths and burials of children at mother-and-baby homes will be debated in the Dáil this week amid mounting demands for a full inquiry into the operation of such facilities.

The Minister of State with Responsibility for Mental Health, Kathleen Lynch, stated on May 8, that Alan Shatter "clearly handled some issues badly".

As a monument is unveiled today to the 222 children who died at a Protestant children’s home and were buried in unmarked graves, survivors of the home have pledged to continue their fight for justice.

WILL there be truth now, or will we go on hiding?

The financial contribution from the Department of Justice towards the erection of a memorial headstone at Mount Jerome Cemetery in remembrance of those babies and children who died while in the care of the Bethany Home in Dublin is to be welcomed (Derek Leinster, Remembering Bethany, March 1).

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have become the parents of a baby boy. He will never know poverty, will receive the best of care, attention and education, and live a life of inherited wealth and privilege. This wealth and privilege will be handed down to his successors.

Derek Leinster's teenage mother gave birth to him in a Bethany home in 1941. He was raised brutally by the State. He has received no compensation and no apology, says Jonathan deBurca Butler.

Survivors of the Protestant-run Bethany Home have claimed it is a form of “discrimination” that they are excluded from justice or redress granted to victims of Catholic-run institutions.

VICTOR Stevenson looks and sounds like your average middle-aged, middle-class Northerner.

Up to 200 women contacted the Department of Justice for information on the Magdalene redress scheme in the 24 hours after the Taoiseach made his groundbreaking apology to the women for the State’s role in their hurt.

With reference to the recent article by Victoria White and subsequent editorial comment concerning the Bethany Home, it should be made clear that the Church of Ireland has not ignored the issues raised by former residents.

I wish to comment on Victoria White’s sobering article (Opinion, Jan 3) — “Justice needed for the survivors of and victims of Bethany House abuse”.

The Catholic hierarchy hid for far too long behind the shield of ignorance when confronted by accusations of child abuse.

Minutes before this man had been talking about the sanctity of each human life. Now he was dismissing the unmarked graves of the babies who died needlessly at Bethany and the stories of the home’s 25 survivors by saying it wasn’t “technically” a Church of Ireland home.

The Archbishop Of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, attended a memorial service for Bishop KH Ting at Mochou Road Church in Nanjing, China, on Saturday, Dec 8.

THE boy’s shoe laces were tied together.”

Tom Cooper’s support (Jul 28) for the inclusion of former residents of the Magdalene laundries and the Bethany Home within the redress scheme is admirable.

Derek Leinster (Letters, Jul 28) rightly expresses his disdain of those in government who remain equivocal on cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

We welcome moves to include Westbank Orphanage, Greystones, in inquiries into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland.

SINN Féin leader Gerry Adams has written to Justice Minister Alan Shatter on behalf of a group of Protestant campaigners seeking to be compensated by the Government for abuse suffered in Government institutions.

I AM reliably informed that the reason the Government will not allow former residents of the Protestant evangelical Bethany Home to apply for redress is because the coffers are bare.

MAGDALENE laundry survivors have called for an apology as well as basic compensation from the state in the form of a pension.

WAS Niall Meehan too kind to the media in his letter of January 14?

I APPRECIATE Eric Conway’s reply to my criticism of his letter (December 23 and January 7).

ERIC CONWAY’S letter of December 17th asserts that an ill defined group he termed the “liberal/feminist commentariat” were, amongst other things, “quite sanguine/blase over Bethany House”.

The Church of Ireland said today that all records it has relating to the Bethany Home in Rathgar are available.

THE Justice For Magdalenes (JFM) advocacy group has accused the Government of refusing to apologise to the women who were kept in Magdalene Laundries as they know most of the women are very elderly and too ashamed about their past to campaign for justice.

AS details emerge about the routine deaths of children at a former Dublin mother and baby home, the Minister for Education has suggested that most of the survivors will not be entitled to redress.

FORMER residents of a Protestant home for children and “fallen women” have reiterated calls for their abuse to be recognised under the government’s Redress scheme.

Former residents of a Protestant children’s home called today for a permanent memorial at the unmarked graves of 40 forgotten babies.