Give survivors extra time with Mother and Baby Homes Report, says Tuam historian

The historian has called for more time to be given for survivors with the report. File picture.

Historian Catherine Corless has said the government should delay the publication of the Mother and Baby Homes Report to allow survivors more time to digest the material.

The historian, whose study of the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway, led to the establishment of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, is making the call after a leak to a Sunday newspaper on Sunday.

Survivors said that seeing details being published in the newspaper before they had been briefed was "hurtful" and "distressing". Some said that the experience had been re-traumatising for them.

Ms Corless said the leaking of the details has “broken the trust” between survivors and the government.

She said that survivors have been treated like “second-class citizens”.

"Broken a trust"

Speaking on RTÉ ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Ms Coreless said she hoped the publication of the report would be a great relief, but she was still very apprehensive, especially after details of the report were leaked yesterday.

“I'm still very apprehensive especially after the leak on Sunday [...] I think it has kind of broken a trust again in the government because the one thing that all the groups lobbied for was that they would get information first [...] this time they really thought they'd be first in line.

“Perhaps the government just might try to make up to them with extra time to talk to them and give them a chance to look at this report before it's sent to the media, maybe delay the report going to the media for another while.

“The way it is lined up for tomorrow as far as i can see is that at 1.30pm they will speak to survivors and then by the afternoon or evening the report will be sent to the media.

“It is not a great advantage and at least it is an effort to give them a chance. As I said it is a pity but it can’t be undone.

'This is what survivors have had to live with all their lives. They are treated as secondhand citizens this was the one chance just to put them to the front and make something of them, but that’s done now, perhaps tomorrow they may make up to them in some way'.

State apology

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to make a full State apology to the women and children who suffered for decades in the Homes.

MS Corless said the apology from the Taoiseach has to be a heartfelt and a “real one”, but also said the survivors need an apology from the Church and the religious 'who were very much in collaboration with everything that went on over those years [...] we'll be looking out for that'.

Meanwhile, the 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.

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."

Sinn Féin have said "there is a role for gardaí" in finding the leak of the Mother and Baby Homes report.

The party have claimed that under the Commission of Investigation Act, the leak could have been a criminal offence.