Prof Scraton said the issue was a "blight on this society".

"This work would not be complete without the families and the survivors who have given so much of their time, not just in the last six months but for years and whose pain will never ever be assuaged by whatever we do.

"Because this is one of the great scandals of our time, not just here in the north but across Ireland, across England Wales and Scotland."

Prof Scraton said a public inquiry might take years.

But he added “without it we will never ever resolve this issue which is a blight on our society and all our lives”.

The panel has recommended an "unprecedented" investigative process which includes both a statutory public inquiry and an investigation by "an independent panel".

The explained that an independent panel and a statutory public inquiry "have different powers, they have different purposes and different possibilities".

Dr Maeve O’Rourke said that the abuses were widespread and complex and the needs of those affected vary greatly.

She said it made sense that more than one approach to investigation would be needed.

In Tuesday's press conference Dr Maeve O'Rourke said “access to records and reparation and compensation are absolutely required in order to make the investigation a success”.

“The key priorities raised by survivors and the relatives are that funding and resources should be sufficient to ensure effective and sustainable implementation of all the panel’s recommendations; that the human rights of survivors and relatives are central to the recommendations’ implementation; that all of the measures recommended must ensure full access for victims survivors and relatives of the deceased to information.”

She also said that all of the policies and practices must be trauma informed and "future investigation must be full accessible to everybody concerned, particularly ensuring participation for people with disabilities.”

Northern Ireland's deputy first minister says she is committed to doing all in her power to help victims.

Image source, Science Photo Library

As well as compensation, the expert panel has recommended that public funding is made available to help families who were separated by mother-and-baby homes to trace their relatives.

It proposes that funding should be available "for voluntary DNA testing and voluntary support services to assist family reunification".

In cases where the missing loved one has already died, the panel recommends funding for "the establishment and maintenance of gravestones and markers, and victim-survivor-led artistic and other forms of memorialisation".

Among its recommendations, the expert panel has called on those responsible for the suffering endured by residents of mother and baby home to apologise immediately to the victims and survivors.

Their report urges "all state, religious and other institutions, agencies, organisations and individuals complicit in the processes of institutionalisation and forced labour, family separation and adoption to act without delay in issuing unqualified apologies".

It added that these apologies should "specify their role in the institutional, forced labour and family separation system; accept responsibility for harms done; demonstrate sincerity in their apology; and demonstrate the safeguards now in place to ensure there will be no repetition of the inhumanity and suffering to which they contributed".

The expert panel has identified "six guiding principles" that it says should underpin the implementation of its recommendations for a public inquiry, redress scheme and other truth-recovery proposals.

They are:

1. Sufficient funding and resources to ensure effective and sustainable implementation
2. The human rights of victims-survivors and relatives should be central to all recommendations
3. Securing full access to personal and family histories for victims-survivors and relatives of the deceased is a "fundamental priority"
4. Policies and practices should be trauma-informed and respond to the needs and preferences of victims-survivors
5. Investigations should be accessible to all victims-survivors and relatives, particularly those with disabilities
6. Inclusion of victims-survivors and relatives affected by cross-border practices and in the diaspora, and relatives of the deceased, is essential

Launching the recommendations, expert panel member Dr Maeve O’Rourke said: "Victims and survivors continue to describe ongoing abuse, including the disappearance of family members and the denial of identity."

She added: "It is essential that the human rights of victims, survivors and relatives are at the heart of the forthcoming investigation.

"Human rights law also requires full access to records and urgent redress and reparation.”

Truth Recovery Design Panel chair Deirdre Mahon said they had "worked closely with victims-survivors and relatives who have shared their heart-breaking stories with us".

"The Executive’s decision in January, on the Inter-Departmental Working Group’s advice, to decide to set up an investigation and involve victims-and survivors centrally in designing the investigation was a hugely positive step," she added.

"Nevertheless this decision has come too late for many, and it is essential that these recommendations are acted on without delay.”

Image source, Truth Recovery Design Panel

Prof Phil Scraton, one of three members of the Truth Recovery Design Panel, described what they had proposed as an "unprecedented process".

"Lives and futures lost through the cruelty within these institutions cannot be recovered, but we must acknowledge the inter-generational pain and suffering inflicted on victims, survivors and families," he said.

"It is now time for that to be recognised and the full truth revealed.”

Alongside recommending the setting up of a statutory public inquiry into Northern Ireland's mother-and-baby homes, the expert panel has proposed a "non-statutory independent panel" investigation which would feed into the public inquiry.

They have also recommended "urgent redress payments" and new legislation to allow former residents to access their personal records.

The expert panel set up to design an investigation into mother-and-baby homes in Northern Ireland has recommended holding a statutory public inquiry, alongside a number of other proposals to help former residents discover the truth behind how the institutions operated.

The Stormont Executive committed to an investigation earlier this year and said victims would be heard "loudly and clearly"

Women who were in the institutions have said they were detained against their will, forced into unpaid labour and made to give up babies for adoption.

Fionnuala Boyle's birth mother was sent to one when she was pregnant with a baby who later died.

Caroline Magee was sent to the St Mary's laundry in Derry in 1975, when she was in her early teens.

In January an investigation was promised into mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland after a report found more than 10,500 women and girls entered the homes between 1922 and 1990.

It examined eight mother and baby homes, a number of former workhouses, four laundries and sought personal testimony from women and children with "lived experience" of the institutions.

Mother-and-baby institutions housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.

The laundries were Catholic-run workhouses that operated across the island of Ireland.

Around a third of women admitted to the homes were aged under 19 and most were aged from 20-29.

The youngest was 12, and the oldest 44.

The NI Executive said it would be a victim-centred independent investigation and appointed a team of experts to establish its terms of reference.

·They were:

• Deirdre Mahon, a qualified and experienced social worker/youth and community worker
• Phil Scraton, professor emeritus in the School of Law, Queen's University Belfast
• Dr Maeve O'Rourke, lecturer in human rights at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland Galway, and barrister

They will announce the terms of reference this morning.