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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has warned that there are limits in what the Government can do about the destruction of recordings of testimony given by survivors of mother and baby homes.
Mr Martin acknowledged that the audio “may be retrieved in some form” and he acknowledged that leaflets given to those who provided oral testimony to the Commission investigating the homes made no mention of the destruction of tapes.
And he described the testimony more than 500 people gave to the commission as “valuable personal information”.
A number of those whose experiences in the homes were recorded said they were not told the tapes would be deleted but the commission report said the recordings were made on the “clear understanding” that they would be used as an aide memoire and destroyed afterwards.
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes last month published an almost 3,000 page report following its’ five year inquiry into the actions of 18 homes and their treatment of women and girls sent they when they became pregnant outside marriage, and their babies.
Raising the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday, Independent TD Catherine Connolly said she had carefully scrutinised the documentation but it made no reference anywhere to the recordings being destroyed.
She said: “People came forward to give evidence, took their courage in their hands, believed in the system once again, or tried to believe, and are left now in a situation where there is no recording of their evidence.”
There was no evidence other than the commission’s word that there was any communication in any manner with witnesses that this would happen.
She said the commission’s decision was an “an imbalance of power”.
“The powerful are telling the powerless what they think is in their interest and that they should be protected by getting rid of the tapes,” she said.
The Taoiseach agreed that “in the leaflets that were issued to the survivors there is no reference to the destruction of tapes at all”.
But he said the decision to destroy the tapes was part of efforts by the commission to “guarantee anonymity”.
He added that Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman had written to the commission asking if it would recover the recordings.
“ He has not, to my knowledge, got a response yet.”
The Taoiseach said “there are limitations as to what the Government can do here” as he stressed that “no member of the Government was involved in the commission”.
Mr Martin told Ms Connolly that the Government “is very focused on what it has committed to doing as regards access to information, information and tracing legislation, reporting on the redress situation by the end of April and other matters.”
The Minister himself addressed the Oireachtas committee on Children on Tuesday and acknowledged it was “problematic” that many survivors said they were not told in advance that the tapes would be deleted while the commission insists it told those giving testimony that the recordings would be destroyed.