Calls for State audit of baby files fell on deaf ears

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.

This is despite repeated calls from groups representing adopted people and natural parents going back more than a decade.

As recently as February of this year, then children’s minister Frances Fitzgerald confirmed no audit of the files was planned.

This is despite the fact that HSE has admitted some files contain evidence of illegal birth registrations and that certain adoption agencies admitted they facilitated illegal adoptions.

The Adoption Authority (AAI) carried out an audit of files it held in 2010, following the Irish Examiner’s investigation into the case of Tressa Reeves, whose son was illegally adopted and falsely registered as the natural child of the adoptive parents. This was facilitated by St Patrick’s Guild adoption agency in Dublin. The audit uncovered around 50 illegal adoptions, but was branded as “cosmetic” by adoptees who said it barely scratched the surface.

Despite admitting its involvement in illegal adoptions, St Patrick’s Guild was the first adoption agency accredited by the AAI.

It’s 13,000 files were never inspected by the authority, despite it having the power to do so since 1952. The files are currently being transferred to the HSE.

The HSE and Tusla is also in possession of more than 25,000 files relating to adoptions from three mother-and-baby homes operated by the Sacred Heart Sisters at Bessborough in Cork, Castlepollard in Westmeath and Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary. Files relating to St Patrick’s Home in Dublin, Ard Mhuire in Dunboyne in Meath and St Clare’s in Stamullen in Meath have also been transferred to the State.

Co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) Susan Lohan said their calls for such an audit have fallen on deaf ears since 2003.

“We called for a full audit and the centralisation of all files held by private and public bodies way back in 2003. We said then that this would reveal the full extent of illegal adoptions”.

Ms Lohan said a separate unit within the HSE or Tusla should be created to manage the files.

“We would feel strongly that the AAI is not the competent authority for this. They have failed to sanction any adoption agency or alert the Government to their activities for years now. It’s a body that is notoriously secretive, not subject to FoI and is not fit for purpose,” she said.