TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN is to apologise to those who were placed in mother and baby homes in the Dáil next week.

As first reported by the Sunday Independent, the Taoiseach will give the apology on behalf of the State and “wider society” on Wednesday, a government spokesperson has confirmed to TheJournal.ie.

In correspondence sent to survivors’ groups, Minister for Children and Equality Roderic O’Gorman said that he was “deeply angered” to see details of the Mother and Baby Home report leaked to a newspaper.

The Sunday Independent reported today that the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation report has found that 9,000 children died in the just 18 institutions investigated.

The Mother and Baby Home Commission’s long-awaited report, which has been delayed a number of times, is due to be published on Tuesday.

The Commission was established in 2015 to inquire into the treatment of women and children in 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes – a sample of the overall number of homes – between 1922 and 1998.

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It was set up following claims that up to 800 babies were interred in an unmarked mass grave at a former Bon Secours home in Tuam, Co Galway – following on from extensive research carried out by amateur historian Catherine Corless.

The commission is chaired by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy, a former judge also chaired the commission of investigation into the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin, publishing the Murphy Report in November 2009; and the commission of investigation into the Catholic Diocese of Cloyne, with the Cloyne Report published in July 2011.

With reporting from Órla Ryan, Cónal Thomas and Lauren Boland