Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

General Scheme of a Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill: Discussion

Ms Doireann Ansbro:

I will respond to the third question and then hand over to my colleague, Ms. Carthy, who will respond to the first two. In terms of whether we would like to see the Minister for Justice or the Attorney General asking the coroner service to get involved, the answer is "Yes". This is overdue and the coroner most certainly should be involved. There is clear, triggering evidence of violent or unnatural deaths of babies in mother and baby homes. The coroner should certainly be involved and there are questions around why the service has not been involved so far. While we would like to see that happen. However, I would emphasise the crucial point that it not good enough to just to trigger the jurisdiction of the coroner or ask the coroner to begin an investigation. The Government will also have to provide proper resources to the coroner and perhaps appoint a specific coroner who is trained on these issues and who has the capacity and resources to carry out a proper and effective investigation, which is the requirement under Article 2 of the UNCHR. I will hand over to Ms Carthy for the first two questions.

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