Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman has said that the Institutional Burials Bill which has just received Government approval will allow the country “at long last, to afford the children interred at Tuam a dignified and respectful burial.”
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One, Mr O’Gorman explained that the Bill will provide the legal basis for the long awaited forensic excavation, recovery and analysis of remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam.
It is believed that the remains of up to 800 babies were buried in “manifestly inappropriate” conditions.
Mr O’Gorman added that he hoped the agency that will oversee the process will be established before the end of the year by which time he also hopes the work of retrieving DNA on site can commence.
It was important to “remove this stain on the national conscience” and to allow families the opportunity to receive the remains which could then be interred in family plots.
It would be a “hugely complex operation” which was “tragically unique” to Ireland, he said.
The Minister for Children said he wanted the new agency to have all the powers it needed to access the highest technical services and to have the necessary resources to identify the remains.
He acknowledged that the process to date had been very frustrating for families.
The legislation had been broadened to include a wider circle of relatives including grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces who could provide DNA to compare with remains. This would provide a greater chance of identification, he said.
