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

Mr. Carl Buckley:

That is tricky in 60 seconds. As I said earlier, we need to remove all of the ambiguity and all of the loopholes within that legislation that enable an exhumation or excavation to be stopped or prevented because it is replete throughout with options to do that. In doing that, we remove the potential for political interference, which will add to the trust and enable trust to be built. People have to have confidence that this is a genuine and independent investigation. I refer back to Article 2 of the convention. Any form of investigation as far as a death is concerned must be independent to satisfy Article 2. It has to be effective, prompt and transparent. The legislation currently does not satisfy any of those five elements. Rather than trying to amend the legislation, if we insist that this legislation is required, notwithstanding what I have previously said, then we should go right back to the beginning and determine and decide what it is that we want this legislation to do and draft it appropriately, taking into account what we want it to do, but also having regard to Article 2 of the convention and the lack of trust among the community and the State. If we start again and ensure that everybody's interests and obligations are satisfied and considered, then we will go some way towards that point.

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