Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am very conscious that there are parents and mothers around the country listening to us who are so afraid about the possibility of exhumation being offered as the only way forward in order to meet all our human rights needs. This is very troubling for them. Ms Ansbro referred to "Taking reasonable steps to identify the deceased person and to determine the cause of death ...". That is good in the context of what was being said about transitional justice. I return to my point about restorative justice, however. We must restore faith, restore the lives and address the heartache in order to help these poor people, these women and families, who have really been suffering. We are not going to find all the answers.

How do we reconcile those two things? I state that because we are not going to be able to find all the answers, no matter how hard we try. There will be many cases where if remains are exhumed, they may not be suitable for the purposes of investigation or perhaps even for reinterment. The grave of such a baby has then been desecrated and there is no proper interment. How do we look after those little babies who do not have family members? I ask that question in the interests of best practice, because there are 9,000 babies and not all of them will have family members who will know to put their hands up or even can do so.