Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said she is hopeful recommendations made by a representative group for mother and baby homes will translate into actual Government action.
The Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes met for the first time on Thursday to begin examining what actions might be taken to address the legacy of the institutions and their former residents.
Separate from the ongoing Commission of Investigation which is due to report early next year, the forum is expected to bring forward recommendations within the next six months.
“I think it’s a really new and innovative approach to engaging the people who were impacted most deeply by that shameful past,” Ms Zappone said on her way into the meeting.
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Asked whether those eventual recommendations would be turned into actions, Ms Zappone said: “My hope is that it would be very likely.”
The forum is made up of 20 representative members and will be divided into three sub-committees tasked with examining specific issues. These will cover questions of identity, health and wellbeing supports, memorialisation and the personal stories of former residents.
“It has taken some time to get to this point because we needed to ensure that there is a representativeness in terms of what’s required and also the possibility of delivering,” Ms Zappone said.
“It always takes more time than what one hopes for, but I think in light of the fact that there was an openness initially in terms of that discussion at Cabinet, and the moral authority of what is happening now, I hope that there is more of a willingness to act as quickly as possible.”
Ms Zappone described the forum as an opportunity “to take one more step in putting our shameful past behind us”.
Its establishment followed a period of consultation with former residents during June and October last year.
Addressing its opening meeting, the Minister raised her forthcoming decision on what to recommend to Cabinet regarding human remains at the Tuam mother and baby home site.
“I would very much have wished to announce the Government’s decision in relation to Tuam by now, but unfortunately the legal issues are even more complicated than we could have anticipated when we started out on this road,” she said, adding that a decision was likely in the autumn.
“I need to decide whether the rights-based approach requires full excavation of all land formerly occupied by the Mother and Baby Home, or whether it would be more appropriate to test all the land and then excavate those areas where anomalies arise, as well of course as the memorial garden and subsurface chambers.”
Meanwhile, about 15 former residents of mother and baby homes, some said to be representing groups, held a demonstration outside the Dáil on Thursday morning.
One of them, Catherine Coffey-O’Brien, who was born in a home, said opposition to the forum was now “like a disease spreading amongst us”. She said there was disagreement among survivors and that trust had broken down.
Ms Zappone had said the forum’s selection panel had tried to ensure there was a broad representation of various homes and that mothers and children of the homes would make up its majority.
