Mother and Baby Homes report: Ireland confronted with another dark chapter of past

Good morning, happy new year and welcome to the first politics digest of 2021.

Every day the Dáil is sitting we’ll bring you our guide to what’s happening in politics in the day ahead and the morning’s most important political stories.

There is only one story that dominates this morning’s newspapers, pushing Covid off the top slot for what seems like the first time in an age. The publication of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes yesterday brought Ireland face to face with another dark chapter from its past, and the papers all go big on it this morning.

Under the headline “From the graves of innocents”, our lead says it was a “story of cruelty, emotional abuse and soaring infant death rates in a series of state- and religious-run institutions”.

State apology to survivors must be backed by real action, says McDonald

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Allegations that large sums were paid to adopt children ‘impossible to prove’

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‘A matter of great sorrow to us that babies died while under our care’ say nuns

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Mother and Baby Homes: Now we must pay the price for our wilful silence

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The Irish Examiner, in a dramatic front page, eschews any report and simply lists the names of all who died at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork. “May they rest in peace,” it says.

“A nation’s shame,” says the Irish Independent.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will make an apology to survivors on behalf of the State today, and there is also likely to be further details of the package of measures the Government will introduce in response to the report. Opposition leaders will also make statements on its findngs.

There is likely to be some focus on the extent to which the report places primary responsibility on the families of the women and the fathers of their children for the harsh treatment they suffered – which some survivors suggest is letting church and the State somewhat off the hook.

The Government is also likely to be pressed on how it intends to persuade the religious orders who ran the homes to contribute to the compensation fund for survivors to which both the Taoiseach and Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman committed themselves to yesterday.

There will also be questions on how the Government is going to provide survivors with access to their records, including adoption records that have been previously unavailable, and how long that process is going to take.

Our lead story is here, and there is comprehensive reporting and analysis on all aspects of the report available in a dedicated section here.

Our leader is here, and Patsy McGarry's analysis is here.

Covid death rate ‘set to worsen’

There was some encouraging news on the Covid front, with further evidence that the surge of new cases is beginning to abate. Just over 3,000 new cases were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team last night – continuing a declining trend in recent days.

But a further 46 deaths were reported, and the pressure on hospitals continues to mount as the pre- and post-Christmas surge in infections makes its inevitable grim progress through to the hospitals. Further pressure on stretched intensive care units is inevitable in the coming days. The health service remains on a knife edge.

In our offlead, chief medical officer Tony Holohan warns the death rate is going to worsen.

Health correspondent Paul Cullen also has a useful analysis on how things went wrong for Ireland.

Best reads

There's acres of coverage of the Mother and Baby Homes report, but your cheat sheet to the findings is here.

More vaccines on the way.

Ireland to get a hefty chunk of EU Brexit funds.

Michael McDowell on the banning of Trump's tweets.

And we should all read Frank McNally's Irishman's Diary every day to further one's education (such as it is) in various matters of literature, history and culture.

Playbook

The Dáil meets for the first time this year at noon for Leaders’ Questions followed by the order of business and – assuming the Dáil approves it – then the statements (including the Taoiseach’s apology) on the Mother and Baby Homes report.

Later in the afternoon there is a questions and answers session scheduled on Covid-19. Whatever about answers, there’ll definitely be a lot of questions.

The Seanad remains adjourned until next week, but the Oireachtas schedule lists seven committees that are holding "private" meetings. The full schedule can be found here.

Across the pond, Donald Trump faces growing momentum towards impeachment, even as the clock ticks down towards the inauguration of Joe Biden. In the House of Representatives Republican Liz Cheney said she would vote for impeachment, as Suzanne Lynch reports.

Last night, Fox News reported Republican leader in the Senate Mitch McConnell believes Trump has committed “impeachable offences”. Well, it’s not all bad news. Have a good day.