Philomena Lee has slammed the Government over its “enslavement” of single mothers in Mother & Baby Homes.
Ms Lee said that she is still “saddened” that victims are still being prevented from knowing the truth and treated as “no better than criminals.”
The former resident of the Sean Ross Abbey home is speaking out about her concerns and disappointments ahead of the publication of the Government’s official report.
Ms Lee told her heartbreaking personal story in the award-winning film, Philomena, where Dame Judi Dench played the lead role.
Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, is expected to give a full State apology in the Dáil on Wednesday, but the campaigner still has issues with the State’s response.
Ms Lee said: “It saddens me so much to hear from the hundreds of adopted people, I meet every year at the memorial service at Sean Ross Abbey, that the Irish state, having breached so many of their human rights, seeks to prevent them from knowing the truth about their early lives and treats them no better than criminals.
“They are denied their own names, their own birth certs, access to their files and the truth of their family destruction.
“It seems to me that this is a deliberate ploy to hide from the survivors and the world the shameful way they treated our children.”
Ms Lee added: “Irish people owe it to the memory of those mothers and children, who have died, without knowing the truth and to resolve that such atrocities will never be allowed to happen again.”
The Mother & Baby Homes report is due to be published after Cabinet review it and after it is then given to the survivors groups.
