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CHILDREN’S MINISTER Roderic O’Gorman has said he deeply regrets causing anxiety among surviving mothers and babies at home.
Last night the Dáil approved a controversial bill, by 78 votes to 67, that allows the transfer of a database of 60,000 records created by the Commission for the Investigation of Maternal and Child Homes to Tusla, the Agency for Children and Families.
Many survivors and legal experts have expressed anger at the bill.
Opposition TDs said the legislation was being passed without proper scrutiny, and none of its amendments were accepted during an emotional debate yesterday.
O’Gorman has defended the legislation but said he regrets miscommunicating what he intends to do.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, O’Gorman: “I needed to do a better job communicating what the government is doing and interacting with survivor groups.
“And I know a lot of anxiety has been caused, I certainly am deeply sorry … that my inability to communicate properly caused that anxiety.”
O’Gorman said people have combined the legislation with the 2004 Act under which the commission operated. He said the latter requires the records to be sealed for 30 years.
GDPR
When asked if the GDPR supersedes this legislation, O’Gorman said that when the regulations were introduced in Ireland in 2018, the 2004 Act “was amended to explicitly exclude the GDPR from applying to commission files.”
This claim has been challenged by legal experts, with Project Clann’s Dra. Maeve O’Rourke stated: “Neither the Commission nor the Government is authorized under the GDPR to affix a blanket seal to the entire file it contains.”
O’Gorman acknowledged that some experts disagree with the Attorney General’s interpretation of the law.
“There are some very eminent experts in this area, who do not agree with the interpretation given by the Attorney General, so I have said that in addition to looking at the 30-year rule, we need to look at the application of GDPR against personal information that is contained in the files “.
O’Gorman is not legally bound by the attorney general’s advice, experts have noted.
“I am fully aware, particularly in the case of personal information, that the 30-year stamp, from the original law, is really problematic,” O’Gorman said.
“I am committed to working with the Attorney General to see what avenues exist to address the 30-year issue, particularly with regard to personal information.”
Tracking
O’Gorman said the commission’s database, once transferred to Tusla, will help people “establish their identity.” However, survivors have expressed concern that they will not be able to access the database.
The minister acknowledged that the current tracking legislation is inadequate and has committed to incorporating new information and tracking legislation next year.
The commission’s report, due to be sent to O’Gorman next week, is 4,000 pages long.
The minister said the report will need to be reviewed by both his department and the Attorney General before being published.
He said he couldn’t give a definitive timetable for it to be available, but wants this to happen “as quickly as possible”, saying: “The survivors have waited long enough.”
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The Clann Project, which comprises the Justice for Magdalenes research group and the Adoption Rights Alliance, said in an earlier statement that sealing the file “means that no one will be able to access your personal records. [or information] about their missing relatives or babies who are buried in nameless graves ”.
“All administrative records will also be retained, showing how the abusive system of forced family separation was handled.
“It will not be possible to question the findings of the Investigation Commission, do further investigations or hold the criminals accountable.”
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