Tánaiste wants full probe into 'disrespectful' leak of mother and baby homes report

Babies vests with messages on them hang on the fence of the Dáil during a candlelit vigil in memory of the Tuam babies. Picture: file

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has called for a full investigation into the leaking of the mother and baby home report and the person responsible "held to account".

Describing it as "disrespectful" to survivors who have waited more than five years for the report, Mr Varadkar suggested that the leak could only have come from a very small number of people within Government who were given the full document to read over Christmas.

The long-awaited report is due out on Tuesday, however, details from it were published in a Sunday newspaper.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the leak as "regrettable" but added that "in the modern era various Government reports, aspects of them, get leaked and we certainly will be addressing that issue as well."

Mr Varadkar went further and said the Cabinet will tomorrow discuss the establishment of an investigation into the leak.

"Hopefully whoever was responsible will be held to account".

He said the leaking of confidential information is a problem in government and in the public service and said "unfortunately that information once shared beyond a small number of people sometimes appears in the papers"

Mr Varadkar said a small group received the entire report last month and a memo on the report was then "widely distributed" on Friday to ministers, secretaries-general, advisers and senior civil servants.

However, he added: "I was speaking to Minister (Roderic) O'Gorman about this yesterday and he believes that there were things in the paper that were in the report and not in the memo. The memo would have been widely distributed on Friday, only a small number of people would have had it [the report] to read over the Christmas period."

The Taoiseach and Children's Minister O'Gorman will meet survivors groups on Tuesday to discuss the report and will be guided by them on what steps should next be taken.

"I think what should be done as part of the restitution as part of atonement as part of putting all this right is a formal State apology done in the Dáil chamber and perhaps with the survivors able to attend, which is not possible at the moment," Mr Varadkar said.