Ms Catherine Corless:

I would agree with that. There seems to be an absolute lack of will from the Government to act on this. It is being dragged out and dragged out. When I started my efforts first, memorialisation was being heavily decided on for Tuam. It was mentioned earlier what happens in other countries where there are mass graves after war. It is almost, I feel at times, as if it is, "They're just illegitimate babies. Leave them there. Let them rest." I had to fight that for many years, that these were individual babies. They were Irish citizens. God knows they could have been with us still. God only knows what could have become of them. They could be sitting here in the Dáil. They had every potential if they had got half a chance but the consensus was: "They are only illegitimate babies. We will put up a statue to them." Galway County Council really pushed that at the time. It is time we made up for that and treated them as individuals and Irish citizens.