‘Make religious orders carry the cost of inquiry’

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.

Fine Gael Cork North West TD Áine Collins added her voice to growing demands for a wide-ranging probe into how mothers and their children were treated after the horrific revelations of the mass grave at a Bon Secours home in Tuam, Co Galway.

“We need to have a full inquiry. It can be delayed no longer. The orders should be made pay for it.

“They were in charge. It’s time to stand up for what happened. A lot of people are hurt.

“It’s the right thing to do with the suffering caused. It’s just barbaric what happened,” Ms Collins said.

The call came as the Cabinet was set to be briefed on the controversy today by Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan, but no decisions on an inquiry were expected.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn was criticised for insisting there was nothing new in the revelations.

Referring to “young women who got into trouble, so to speak”, Mr Quinn stated: “This isn’t news. Everybody has known that this happened for years and years and years because families put their daughters away when they got pregnant.”

But Mr Quinn said the probe could not be the same as the Ryan report into child abuse in residential institutions, as previous inquiries could gather testimony from survivors.

“Let’s find out what the facts are first before we set the terms of reference for any public inquiry,” the minister told RTÉ.

Mr Quinn said an inquiry was needed due to the impression of events given by the international media. He said some of the reports abroad were: “quite horrendous and gave a very mistaken impression of what actually happened”.

“I have read much of the stuff over the weekend that is now in the public domain and it is quite different to what in fact the banner headlines were suggesting when this story first broke.

“This has been known about and written about for quite some time,” Mr Quinn said.

Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance attacked the minister’s attitude, saying: “The tone of his remarks is extremely insulting. It does not reflect the sense of outrage the rest of the country is feeling.”

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said a full inquiry was needed into the Tuam site.

“I think a statutory may well be necessary. I do think though before we go down that route, we need to do a scoping exercise and work out what the facts are because there are conflicting reports.”