Image: Vigil at College Street, Waterford, the site of the home which closed in 1996 Credit: Michelle Byrne
The fallout to the Mother and Baby Homes controversy continued this week, with more survivors of the system getting in contact with Deise Today.
54-year-old Gemma, from the city, told Damien Tiernan that she ended up in the system after she was born prematurely. Her mother, Agnes, was due to marry her father but Gemma arrived early and Agnes was signed into a home. She was there for four months but woke up one morning to find Gemma was gone.
Gemma spoke on the programme this morning:
The bill, which was signed into law over the weekend, will see a database of records sent to Tusla however, there are fears many important files will be sealed for 30 years.
Jennifer Kavanagh, a law lecturer at Waterford Institute of Technology spoke to Damien Tiernan on Deise Today.
“I do feel it was rushed, that maybe there could have been a better way of bringing in the views of everyone who was affected by what happened in these mother and baby homes.
“I fear that maybe that urgency that was created around it may not have caused the best possible legislation that could have come out in the circumstances than if they took this a little bit more slowly and took on other people’s views.”
President Michael D Higgins signed the bill into law over the weekend.
Jennifer Kavanagh says the President can only refuse to sign a bill if it’s not in line with the constitution.
She says it would have been a gamble for the President to summon the Council of State and refer the bill to the Supreme Court.
“What you would be having is a theoretical debate about the legislation that’s there and if the President loses that gamble, it means the legislation cannot be challenged in future by anyone.”
You can listen back to Jennifer Kavanagh explain the legal implications of the bill here:
And you can listen back to all of Tuesday's programme below
