Irish mother and baby homes report to be published

A meeting of the Republic of Ireland's cabinet is expected to authorise the publication of a final report by a commission into mother and baby homes on Tuesday.

The institutions were used to house women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.

The final report is expected to find that 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions investigated.

The homes were established across Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Most of the children born there were adopted or spent time in orphanages run mainly by Catholic nuns.

But there were also similar Protestant institutions, such as Bethany Home.

The report is due to be published by mid-afternoon on Tuesday.

The homes became an international news story in 2017 after significant human remains were found in the grounds of a former home in Tuam, County Galway.

Local historian Catherine Corless found that 796 children had been buried there.

In response, the Irish government established an independent Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

In an interim report, the commission found that some babies were buried in 20 chambers inside what was a larger decommissioned sewage tank.

The controversial mother and baby homes also featured in the movie, Philomena, starring Dame Judi Dench.

It tells the story of a woman seeking to find her son who was adopted by an American couple.

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Mícheál Martin has said it is "regrettable" that the final report was leaked to the Sunday Independent newspaper before those affected had the chance to see the findings.

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman said he was very angry about the leak.

Survivors of the homes also expressed their anger.

The newspaper also carried an interview with Mr Martin about the report in which he said the findings were a "shocking and difficult read".

The report is expected to find that 9,000 children - one in seven - died in the 18 institutions investigated.

Despite that high figure, the commission is also expected to say that no-one raised the alarm.

Bethany Home was not included in the terms of reference much to the anger of former residents.

In the Dáil on Wednesday, Mr Martin is expected to apologise formally to the victims on behalf of the state and wider society.

Because of attitudes at that time towards babies born outside marriage, it was often the women's families who sent them to the homes.

The report is expected to be the last in a series to shine a light on a very different and very clerical Ireland.