Government urged to commission new Mother & Baby Home report

The call, from the leader of the Seanad, comes after a commission member admitted the testimony of 500 survivors had been excluded from the main report.

Mother & Baby Homes Commission member Prof Mary Daly has hit out at parties who had 'the nerve' to question the commission's findings. Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

The leader of the Seanad has said the Mother and Baby Homes Commission report cannot stand and has called on the Children's Minister to immediately commission a new investigation.

Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty has written to Roderic O'Gorman calling on the Government to immediately repudiate the report in the wake of "simply outrageous" remarks made by a member of the commission.

Prof Mary Daly, a commission member, admitted that the testimony of more than 500 survivors was dismissed as she claimed it did not "meet robust legal standards of evidence" needed to be included in the main report.

Prof Daly has also hit out at those interested who had "the nerve" to question and criticise the findings of the Commission and claimed they came up against "serious pushback" to their draft reports.

Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty has written to Roderic O'Gorman calling for a new report to be commissioned. Photo Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Writing to Mr O'Gorman in the wake of the remarks which have shocked and angered survivors, Ms Doherty said: "Prof Mary Daly's presentation at Oxford University is simply outrageous.

"The commission's report should be stood down immediately and a new report commissioned that actually reflects the actual lived experiences of survivors."

During an online conference, Prof Daly, who along with her commission colleagues refused to appear before an oireachtas committee to answer questions on the report earlier this year, said it was "not a wise idea" to gather confidential testimony from survivors at the same time as the commission was carrying out its work.

Asked about evidence given to the confidential committee Prof Daly said: “How could we have integrated the confidential inquiry into the report?

“Well first of all, it would have taken a lot of additional time. It would have taken hundreds of hours of cross checking, re-reading against the other evidence available from registers and so on."

Meanwhile, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said Prof Daly's appearance at the Oxford event had "added insult to injury" to mother and baby home survivors and suggested it would be "useful" for the commission members to now come before the Oireachtas.

He said when an induvial or group is asked by the State to carry out work “you should be willing to explain how you did that body of work.”

“It would have been good for their healing process," he told RTÉ radio.