Quinn: Facts first, before any mother and baby home inquiry
The Education Minister said we should assemble the facts before agreeing to set up a full inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of babies at Mother and Baby homes in Ireland in the 1940s and 50s.
Ruairi Quinn said there is a lot of misinformation out there about the high mortality rates at the various homes which were run by religious orders.
He said that the State must first assemble the facts before deciding on whether an inquiry is needed.
"First and foremost, we must have an assemblage of all of the facts, not the lurid headlines - which were quite misleading – and then decide whether an investigation or anything else is actually necessary," he said.
"But we shall start with the facts … and it's not about looking for victims or looking to blame somebody, because, if anything, conservative Ireland was to blame - back in the 50s, and 40s, and 30s."
