AFTER MEETING MOTHER and Baby Home survivor and advocacy groups this morning, the Taoiseach has said he is not “anticipating any “obstacles or barriers” to the release of the commission’s report.

The commission was set up over five years ago and the submission of the long-awaited report, which is about 4,000 pages long, was delayed a number of times.

The commission’s records – and whether or not they will be sealed for 30 years – have been the subject of much debate in recent weeks.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will submit its final report to the government today.

The report will be examined by Minister Roderic O’Gorman, the Department of Children and the Attorney General before being published.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Micheál Martin said:

“It is our intention to publish this, because the whole purpose of establishing the commission was to tell as comprehensive the story as much as possible about what I regard as a very shameful and and dark, dark period in our country’s history.”

When asked if a State apology might be made, the Taoiseach said: “I’m ruling nothing out at all.”

“And certainly we won’t be found wanting in terms of a comprehensive response,” he added. 

“I would anticipate that we will publish this as soon as possible. We’re not looking at it from the perspective of barriers to publication, rather, we’re looking at it from the perspective of enabling it to be published, as soon as we possibly can,” said Martin.

The Taoiseach said he had a “constructive meeting” with various survivor and advocacy groups this morning. 

He said they discussed how to “move forward” in terms of dealing with issues to do with the application of GDPR in terms of access to records, and the legislative agenda that is required for getting statutory access to records for people generally, as well as for people who were adopted.

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The Taoiseach said they also looked at the framework needed for the future legislation as well as the establishment of a proper archival centre to hold the archive.

“That story deserves to be told, and needs to be told,” he said, adding that it needs to be shared with the people of Ireland.

“That is my objective and indeed the objective of the wider government,” he said.

When asked about redress for the survivors, he said “suffice to say, we will be making a very comprehensive response to this, and I don’t want to obviously preempt the report itself… we certainly won’t be found wanting in terms of the comprehensive response,” said the Taoiseach.