Illegal adoptions, including sale of baby, known to HSE since 2012

Evidence of multiple illegal adoptions — with at least one child sold to the US from the Tuam mother and baby home — was uncovered by the HSE as early as 2012.

The revelations are in one of a series of draft briefing papers prepared on the Tuam and Bessborough mother and baby homes by Declan McKeown, a consultant public health physician and medical epidemiologist of HSE Medical Intelligence.

The drafts date to October 2012, two years before the Tuam babies scandal. They were completed as part of the HSE’s examination of the State’s role in the Magdalene Laundries, under the McAleese inquiry.