Mother and Baby Homes Inquiries
Seanad Éireann — 2020-12-01
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Roderic O'Gorman (GP), Dublin West

I absolutely agree. I acknowledged during the debates on the database legislation that I had not done enough to engage with survivors. Since then, I have had approximately 40 calls with survivors, individuals and representative groups, which has given me a much greater perspective on the individual harm that was initially done in the mother and baby homes and how the treatment by the State over the years has magnified that harm. I am conscious of those issues and the need to bring forward legislation. It is an absolute priority for me. My officials and I are meeting about it today. I will be engaging in the first place with the Attorney General to talk about the specifics of the legislation and the need to have it focused on GDPR. That will be the linchpin for this piece of legislation and hopefully it will avoid some of the constitutional difficulties on which we touched during previous debates that have blocked progress on this matter.
I will, at all times, be working with Senators and Deputies because we all know that we need to get this right. I am very much looking forward to working with everybody to get a resolution for the women and children who were in these institutions.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2020-12-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-12-01