No decision yet on the inclusion of county homes
The Government has yet to decide whether or not to include county homes in the proposed inquiry in to mother and baby homes, a spokesperson has confirmed to The Irish Catholic.
The inquiry is expected to be established before the Oireachtas summer recess which begins later this month.
Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan briefed the Cabinet on Tuesday about the progress of an interdepartmental committee advising on the issue.
The minister said that his department had received over 100 submissions on how the inquiry should proceed. His officials will now draw up the terms of reference for the inquiry.
This week’s cabinet briefing was described as the culmination of the cross-departmental ‘scoping exercise’ ordered by Minister Flanagan following allegations of the mass burial of infants and children at a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
Contacted by The Irish Catholic this week, a spokesperson for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs was unable to say whether county homes would also be included under the commission’s terms of reference. Such homes, which ran in parallel with Church-run mother and baby homes, were operated by local authorities and housed mothers and babies, though they were not run exclusively for these.