Commission members received wide range of submissions

THE commission had to wait a year and four months before it got an office and secretarial staff after it was set up by Micheál Martin in March 2000.

Commission chairwoman Professor Dervilla Donnelly said the members did begin their discussions before being assigned a base in July 2001 but added: “It was hard to keep in contact using one’s own telephone at home.”

When the commission, which included academics and legal and medical experts, were finally given the facilities to begin their work in earnest, they divided into separate working groups to focus on different aspects of their terms of reference.