Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their opening statements and their submissions. Today is a really important day. It opens the door to try to move on and give these lives the respect they were not given in life. I commend Ms Corless on her work. The domino effect of what she has done has been tremendous. The State owes her significant thanks. It is really important the victims are at the front of our thoughts here today, as well as the families who are grieving or looking for family members and the little babies who may no longer have family members in existence because this goes back to the origins of the State. It is incredible to think of the little lives that were lost and not taken care of properly. Today is a good day because the State can come back and say that all those lives mattered. This is the start of that process.

I only have one question because, for me, today is a listening and learning process to inform the next steps to be taken by the committee, such as delving further into the human rights issues or the issues to which Senator Seery Kearney referred, such as the coroners and that overlapping of responsibility. One thing that is not necessarily troubling me but about which I have a question is the threshold of investigation. I would like to tease that issue out, if possible. Where is that bar best placed? There is an emotion and a want for these children to be looked after and then there is the practicality of disturbing the rest of babies who may have been buried appropriately. It is important to strike a balance and to make sure we reach that threshold. Tuam is very straightforward in a way because, thanks to the incredible amount of work that has been done, we know babies are buried there. However, there is less certainty about the extent of burials at certain other sites. What are the opinions of the witnesses on that threshold? It is very important in the context of sites other than Tuam.