Mother and Baby Homes Commission back-up files found
73 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, the location of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. Picture: Sasko Lazarov /RollingNews.ie
Survivors of mother and baby homes have been given fresh hope of retrieving their witness recordings after the commission said it found back-up files.
It comes after weeks of campaigning by survivors and opposition parties, who have criticised the commission for destroying the audio of 550 interview without taking verbatim transcripts.
Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman said the commission had contacted him on Thursday informing him the back-up files had been found after he requested that they exhaust all possibilities of retrieving the recordings.
The commission had initially told Mr O'Gorman it was not possible to retrieve the personal accounts.
Mr O'Gorman gave the commission 24 hours to provide further information and asked that they immediately hand over the files to his department. However, the commission did not respond to him yesterday.
Mr O'Gorman said he didn't want to "unduly raise expectations" as it is still unclear if the files will contain the wiped audio.
He also suggested that even if the recordings are recovered it still may not be possible to release them and he has sought advice from the Attorney General on this.
Mr O'Gorman said he understood the anger felt by survivors, many of whom say they did not consent to the deletion of their testimony, and has been working to find a solution and "to make sure that their voices are heard and then they're protected".
"The commission informed me that they had become aware of back-up tapes held which may, and I have to stress the word may, contain the audio files of the personal accounts given to the confidential committee," he told the Seanad.
