Personal records of children who were “boarded out” from religious institutions will be withheld from a new public archive set up to remember the abuse of women and children in 20th-century Ireland. The Department of the Taoiseach will give special permission for personal data to be held back from large sections of the Clandillon Papers, which were inspection reports detailing the lives and experiences of 28,000 children who were hired or fostered from institutions, including mother and baby homes. The Department of Children said it was “fully committed” to transferring the Clandillon Papers to the National Archives, which is collecting records from the State for the new museum and public archive of institutional abuse. It said, however, it had a legal responsibility to withhold records that “contain sensitive personal data of private individuals, which is often material which they do not want to be viewed publicly by others”. The department has been in dispute with the National Archives since 2023 over access to the files. The Clandillon Papers are 200 files containing 30,000 records relating to an estimated 28,000 people. They include inspection reports of “boarded out” or “nursed out” children by the Department of Health, most of which date from the 1940s to the 1960s. Between 20,000 and 30,000 children who were born in institutions such as mother and baby homes were “boarded out” to work in homes and farmhouses countrywide. Many children, some of whom were as young as five, suffered severe sexual and physical abuse, and many as adults do not qualify for existing State redress schemes. The Clandillon Papers, which were later transferred to the Department of Children, include detailed personal information about these children, including health conditions and criminal offences. According to an internal Department of Children briefing, the files “may concern vulnerable individuals who are still living”. At the moment, they are accessible via General Data Protection Regulation for individual survivors or Freedom of Information (FOI) for the families of deceased survivors. In early 2023, the department said the “bulk” of the Clandillion Papers contains “a lot of personal data”, according to correspondence released under FOI. The same year, the National Archives first started trying to access and gather such files from Government departments and expressed an interest in the Clandillon Papers. Its work was halted after legal concerns were raised by the Government.In 2024, the Department of Children sought legal advice, which said that it could not “transfer files which contained personal data” to the National Archives “and allow for public viewing”. According to an internal department briefing, this legal advice was sought following the “continued insistence” of the National Archives to have the files transferred. The same year, the National Archives raised concerns in a meeting with the department about the “large-scale withholding” of records by the department. The National Archives published details of the dispute over files in its 2024 annual report, describing a “reluctance” on the part of some Government departments to share records. This prompted concerns within the Department of Children, which argued in internal emails that the National Archives report was not “fair or accurate” and could create the impression of a “less than positive relationship”. Parts of the Clandillon Papers will now need special permission, called a “certification”, from the Department of the Taoiseach to ensure personal data will be withheld from the new National Centre for Research and Remembrance at the site of a former Magdalene laundry on Dublin’s Sean McDermott Street.A Department of Children spokeswoman said it was “important to note that certification does not prevent a person from accessing their own information, whether the records are held in a department or are transferred to the National Archives for preservation purposes”. Minister for Children Norma Foley will also bring forward a proposal to Government later this year, which could include a change to existing laws to make it easier and clearer for departments to share key institutional abuse records with the National Archives. The Department of Children said the policy proposals will “provide for openness and transparency while protecting the privacy of survivors’ personal information in the records that will be housed in the national centre, including the Clandillon Papers”. A public consultation will also be set up afterwards.