Emma Little-Pengelly was commenting after the issue was elevated to a formal agenda item at Friday’s meeting of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) in Dublin.
The move was requested by Stormont’s leaders as part of ongoing moves to establish a public inquiry north of the border.
In response, Taoiseach Simon Harris said his government would strive to be “helpful” when it came to issues such as accessing records of institutions that were located in the Republic of Ireland.
Ms Little-Pengelly said north south co-operation was also important to ensure victims and survivors of Northern Ireland-based institutions who now live south of the border could still access any redress payments that emerge from the Stormont-commissioned probe.
The deputy First Minister said a number of cross-border issues had arisen in the process of designing Stormont’s statutory inquiry.
“We want to make sure that those participating in this inquiry can get full access to the records, should there be medical records or records in relation to those institutions,” she told reporters after the NSMC plenary hearing at Dublin Castle.
“We also should recognise that, at times, women from Northern Ireland were in institutions in the Republic of Ireland and from the Republic of Ireland in Northern Ireland, and those babies that were taken in that process were often sent across the border, and their records and what happened to those children, even if that were onward to travel outside of this island, that is held also by different bodies across this island.
“And importantly, in terms of redress, trying to make sure that if someone was born in an institution in Northern Ireland, but now residing in the Republic of Ireland, that they should be able to keep all of that redress, so that requires some technical work to make sure that that doesn’t impact in terms of benefits or in tax reasons.
“So there’s a wide number of areas that we want to co-operate to make sure absolutely that those women and those born in those institutions get the justice that they deserve and get the redress that they deserve.”
In 2021, Stormont-commissioned experts recommended that a public inquiry be established to investigate mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland.
A non-statutory independent panel was also set up to allow those who were sent to the institutions, and their families, to give evidence in a less adversarial format.
A public consultation exercise was launched earlier this year to ensure that victims and survivors were offered an opportunity to shape the forthcoming inquiry.
A previous academic research study outlined the scale of mistreatment endured by thousands of women and girls in the institutions.
The work, by Queen’s University and Ulster University, found that more than 14,000 girls and women went through the doors of mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and other institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1990.
It found that many were mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up children for adoption.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it was important to formalise the issue as an agenda item at the NSMC.
“It’s been an area of co-operation for some time but, as we know, a lot of these mother and baby homes were institutions run by institutions that operated across the island, and there was a lot of movement,” she said.
“So it’s important that in terms of record maintenance, etc, that we have a very strong joined up approach to ensuring that when it comes to getting access to individuals’ information, that we have the maximum information to give to them.
“So it was more to put it on a formalised structure (at the NSMC), as opposed to it just perhaps being raised on some occasions.”
Mr Harris said the government in Dublin was willing to help.
“There will be issues in relation to access to records, there will be issues in relation to income disregards and making sure that our systems understand that as well,” he said.
“And we’re certainly willing to be as helpful and co-operative as possible, because at the end of the day, there were babies and mothers wronged on this island, and it was a wrong that didn’t recognise borders or partition.”