Draft laws agreed to allow Tuam reburials
Zappone: Families have been waiting for this
Historian Catherine Corless at site
DRAFT laws enabling the reburial of the remains of hundreds of children from a mass grave at a former Catholic care home have been published.
Almost 1,000 bodies were disposed of in a septic tank at Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Co Galway.
The proposed law, which was approved yesterday, would authorise excavation, exhumation and re-interment of the remains at the site.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said: “The drafting of this legislation is a priority for me, and I am delighted that Government supports the approach outlined in the general scheme to deal with the various sensitive and complex issues at hand.
“Family members of children interred in Tuam have been eagerly awaiting this and I am pleased agreement marks a significant milestone on our journey to afford those buried there the dignity and respect they deserve.”
Tuam was a home for unmarried mothers and their children and received unwed pregnant women before they gave birth.
They were then separated from their kids, who were housed elsewhere in the home and raised by nuns until they could be adopted.
The home was run by members of the Bon Secours religious order. The congregation has agreed to help fund the exhumation.
A judge-led inquiry previously said digs uncovered an underground structure divided into 20 chambers containing “significant quantities of human remains”.
Under the draft law there would be a legal basis for forensic analysis of any recovered remains, providing for samples to be taken from them, as well as from relatives of the deceased for the purpose of identification.
No appropriate oversight structures are currently in place for such a complicated and unprecedented project, the Irish Government said on Tuesday.
Its proposals would enable the establishment of a temporary agency to manage intervention at the site and act as a “dedicated and responsive” authority.
The Government could authorise interventions of a similar nature at other current or former institutions.
Ministers also approved arrangements for the transfer of €2.5million offered by order for the project’s cost.
I’m delighted Government supports the approach outlined in the scheme KATHERINE ZAPPONE
YESTERDAY