"How could this possibly have happened?"
Independent TD Catherine Connolly has said that trust has been "broken", after audio recordings from the investigation into mother-and-baby homes were destroyed.
Roderic O'Gorman said on Tuesday that the destroyed "material can not be retrieved.”
He said he has engaged with the Attorney General on the destruction of the tapes, though a number of survivors have said they did not consent to the files being deleted.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Connolly said that trust has now been "repeatedly broken", and demanded an answer as to why the evidence was destroyed, and on what basis it was destroyed.
She said: "Can it possibly be retrieved? I would ask you to publish all of the correspondence between you, the Minister and the Commissioners in relation to this matter.
"Please don't tell me the Commission is independent... This is nothing to do with its independence. It's to do with the way it works."
Speaking to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, she said: "Tell us how could this possibly have happened, where people went forward to give evidence took their courage in their hand, believed in the system once again, and are left now in a situation where there is no recording of their evidence, on the basis that the Commissioners knew best?"
Connolly's passionate speech can be seen here:
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1362019653330100227?s=20
Martin responded by saying that he has asked whether the audio files can be retrieved.
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1362020528156983297?s=20
