Professor Ray Murphy:

That is a difficult question. The legislation provides for an agency to be established. As I stressed at the beginning, practically speaking, it is really important to listen to family members and survivors in deciding what sites to select and where they will go. The legislation is relatively limited to certain institutional sites so the agency will need to engage the relevant expertise. I am not quite sure if I am answering the Deputy's question but, for example, to conduct an exhumation properly is a very sensitive area that needs very specific expertise, especially in respect of infant graves. The forensic anthropologists will need to have experience and expertise, as will all the other persons who will follow in the examination of DNA and other evidence. We advocated in our report that the approach to this analysis would be multidisciplinary because the broader the analysis and the more expertise there is, the more likely a successful outcome. Where that is not possible, appropriate levels of memorialisation with a proper, dignified burial and memorial to these victims are also critical.

In the end, we want the legislation revised significantly to ensure that, where the process is undertaken, it is at all stages led by human rights and equality legislation and the transitional justice approach is adopted. This involves making the victims and survivors central to the whole process and ensuring that the resources will be made available. If this is done properly, in my opinion, it will take a lot of time. It is again incumbent on us as a society, and on the State, to do the very best in the circumstances to ascertain the identity of the victims, to try to link them with survivors and to try to provide an appropriate and dignified burial, which, clearly, the evidence shows was not the case in the first instance.