Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 5 February 2025
911. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth whether she will consider a sensitive excavation of the suspected burial grounds at Bessborough; whether engagements with survivors have been conducted to seek their views; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2351/25]
View answerI am very conscious of the pain caused by the deaths of people who were resident in the former Mother and Baby institution in Bessborough and the uncertainty regarding the burial place of many children who were resident there.
The investigation of burial arrangements in Mother and Baby institutions, including Bessborough, was an important part of the work of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. The Commission carried out cartographic and landscape assessments of possible unrecorded burial arrangements at the site. It also carried out a site survey and followed up with people on responses to its appeal seeking information about burials. However, it was unable to find any physical or documentary evidence of burials of the children who died at Bessborough in the grounds. As no evidence of locations was found, the Commission did not consider it feasible to excavate the full available site, which amounts to 60 acres, or indeed the former 200 acre estate, parts of which have now been built on.
The Institutional Burials Act 2022 provides a legislative basis for an intervention whereby the remains of those who died in residential institutions, and who were buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner, may be recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way. Section 7 of the 2022 Act requires that Government must be satisfied that burials have taken place and must have evidence that those burials are manifestly inappropriate in order to establish an Office of Director of Authorised Intervention to undertake an excavation and recovery of remains at a site associated with a particular institution.
In the case of Bessborough, the location of burials is, sadly, unknown. In this situation it is not possible to bring forward a proposal to establish an Office of Director of Authorised Intervention to excavate and recover remains.
