URGENT: The Mother & Baby Homes Commission Archive is about to be Sealed for 30 years unless we act immediately: http://jfmresearch.com/commission-archive/

no-one will be able to access their personal records from the Minister’s archive, or information about their disappeared relatives or babies who are buried in unmarked graves.

All of the administrative files, which show how the abusive system of forced family separation was run, will also be withheld.

Instead, the Minister could take custody of the entire archive (or at least a copy of the entire archive) and provide personal data access to the entire archive directly from his Department. The Commissions of Investigation Act currently requires him to take the whole archive.

It is a matter of political will. The Oireachtas is capable of legislating to ‘un-seal’ the whole archive so that the Minister can facilitate personal data access requests from all affected, and to release state and institutions’ administrative records anonymised as necessary.