The announcement came as rights group Amnesty called for an urgent formal investigation into new evidence that suggests 796 children, from newborns to eight-year-olds, were deposited without coffins or gravestones, in a grave near a Catholic-run home, which operated from 1925 to 1961.
Historian Catherine Corless, who made the discovery, says her study of death records for the St Mary's home in Tuam in County Galway suggests that a former septic tank near the home was a mass grave.
During a trade visit to California, he told reporters that Dublin must decide what is the "best thing to do in the interest of dealing with yet another element of our country's past."
St Mary's, run by the Bons Secours Sisters, was one of several such 'mother and baby' homes in early 20th century Ireland.
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In a statement Thursday, the Bon Secours sisters, who ran St Mary's, said they were "shocked and deeply saddened" by the reports.
They said they welcomed Dublin's decision to "initiate an investigation, in an effort to establish the full truth of what happened."
The 'mother and baby' homes accommodated women who became pregnant outside of marriage and who were labelled "fallen women" by the unforgiving conservative Catholic society of the time.
Conditions were harsh at the homes, with death records showing the children in the Tuam home died from malnutrition, pneumonia and infectious diseases.
"The history of 'mother and baby' homes in Ireland reflects a brutally, unforgiving response by society," Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan said in the Irish parliament yesterday.