The government has confirmed that survivors of mother and baby homes will be legally entitled to their details, once it doesn’t impact on the rights of others.
There’s been a broad welcome to the announcement. The Labour Party has described it as a ‘U-turn.’
In a statement, the Government said it had a ‘detailed reflection’ on the issues raised in recent days and ‘acknowledges and regrets the genuine hurt felt by many people’.
Almost 200,000 people signed the ‘Repeal the Seal, Open the Archive’, petition addressed to the Children’s Minister.
Roderic O’Gorman says he knows he could have handled the situation better. He says he knows he has to ‘win back the trust of survivors’.
In a joint statement, the Adoption Rights Alliance, Justice for Magdalenes Research and the Clann Project say the Government’s commitment to work closely with the Data Protection Commission to vindicate the rights of people who experienced forced family separation abuses, is a clear and welcome departure from previous policy.
