Oireachtas committee can't compel Mother and Baby Homes Commission to come before it 

Members of the Children's Committee held a private meeting to discuss what options are now available to them following commission members' refusal to attend. File picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

The Oireachtas Children's Committee has said it cannot compel members of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission to come before it to answer questions.

Committee chair Kathleen Funchion said she was "very disappointed" the commissioners have refused to attend and that this decision was shared with a media outlet "before the members of this committee had the opportunity to comprehensively consider their response”.

The committee had invited Judge Yvonne Murphy and her two colleagues to attend after it emerged that the testimony of 550 survivors who spoke to the confidential committee was not given the same weight as other forms of evidence and information.

Members of the Children's Committee held a private meeting to discuss what options are now available to them following the refusal to attend. 

However, Ms Funchion admitted they now have to accept this response.

“While the committee has to accept the refusal of the former members of the commission to appear before the committee, members have agreed to publish the response received from Justice Yvonne Murphy," Ms Funchion said after the private meeting.

Responding to the committee's invitation last Friday, the commission members said their findings could be "put in peril" if they were to appear before "some of the committee's members whose rush to judgement without due process, is already a matter of record".

“The work of the commission is reflected in its final report and its interim reports and not by commentators who seek to sweep aside its findings," the members said in a letter to Ms Funchion.

Ms Funchion said she believes the committee is still the appropriate place to answer the questions that survivors still have about the final report, which was published in January.

We remain committed to working with survivors and their representative groups to ensure their voices are heard.”

She said the committee will now work “very closely" with Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman and his department officials "regarding the next steps in this process”.

It is understood Mr O'Gorman is also keen to get the views of the committee before he appoints an independent expert to review the testimony given to the confidential committee.

The three commissioners had been invited to attend the committee on June 17, to answer questions around remarks made by Prof Mary Daly at an Oxford University event earlier this month.

Her appearance was described as “disrespectful” to the Oireachtas by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and there have been widespread calls for the commission’s report to be repudiated.