HSE stays silent on concerns over baby homes

The HSE has refused to say why concerns about infant deaths and possible trafficking from Bessborough in Cork and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home were not reported to the then health minister.

The Irish Examiner revealed, in 2015, senior management within the HSE had raised concerns about “shocking” infant mortality rates and possible trafficking of children at both the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home as well as the Tuam home in 2012 — two years before the Tuam babies scandal emerged.

A note of a teleconference call on October 12, 2012, involving then head of the medical intelligence unit, Davida De La Harpe, and then assistant director of Children and Family Service, Phil Garland, revealed management felt what had been discovered in Tuam warranted a state inquiry.