Opposition TDs have called on President Michael D Higgins not to sign the controversial Commission on Mother and Baby Homes Bill.
Calling on President Higgins to use his powers to refuse to sign the Bill into law, People before Profit TD Brid Smith said: “It is clear from the debate and subsequent information that the Minister and Government have no clear idea what information is being sealed and what records might still be available to survivors in the future.
“This is deeply traumatic for the families and survivors and the Government need to to change direction on this before compounding the trauma and hurt to victims after the decades of state abuse and collusion with religious orders at the heart of this scandal.”
Tanáiste Leo Varadkar said there has been a “huge outpour of emotion” but he thinks genuine people have been genuinely given “the wrong message about this”.
He said: “The database, the archive, is not going to be sealed and put away and hidden for 30 years.
“That’s not going to happen. It’s going to be protected and preserved and for people who want access to their personal information we’ll make sure they’re able to get that access. “And for people who want their personal information to remain private it will and we’re certainly not going to allow a situation where the secrets of the past are going to remain hidden.
He told RTE Radio One: “We’re not going to allow this part of our very dark history to be swept under the carpet that’s not going to happen.”
Thousands of people have signed a petition calling for the seal to be lifted on an archive containing the records.
As of Sunday afternoon over 140,000 people had signed the petition, which was set up by adoptee rights group Aitheantas.
