Taoiseach To Make Formal State Apology To Mother And Baby Home Survivors Share this article The Taoiseach will make a formal state apology to Mother and Baby Home survivors in the Dáil later. It follows yesterday's publication of the long-awaited Commission of Investigation report, which found an "appalling" level of infant mortality among the children born there. 9,000 died in the 18 institutions examined between the 1920s and 1990s. Micheál Martin described the report as harrowing and said society did this to the women and children. But Historian Catherine Corless says those comments have caused a lot of hurt; 'He specifically pointed out society in general and the parents of these survivors and they were very very hurt over that'.