Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for giving us their time today and for all of the work they have done on this very important issue. I want to use my time to gain from their knowledge and get their guidance. Our job is to try to frame legislation that will in some way begin to bring about justice for these human rights atrocities. I listened closely to the witnesses and I have read all of the submissions and I thank them all. I would appreciate if Professor Scraton could speak to us a little about the coronial process and about investigating each and every one of these deaths. We are speaking about 9,000 babies and somewhere in the region of 200 women, much of this being historical. What would be the scale of such investigation? What would be involved in terms of resources, time and expertise? I appreciate it is a very broad question but it would be very important if Professor Scraton is able to share this with us. In doing this we want to try to get it right and we want to try to bring about justice. I do not know whether I have picked up Professor Scraton correctly but I heard him say the coroner's office does not have the resources. Does he propose this is something on which we should engage external and international leadership as a State? I would also like to hear from Ms Corless, Ms Lohan and Ms Harney. I appreciate the urgency because it has been four years and it has taken us too long to get this far but where does the balance come between trying to progress what we have in front of us and starting again from scratch?