Ms Amanda Larkin:

I will start by explaining who I am and why I am here. My name is Amanda Larkin. I am a member of the collaborative forum and my mother is a survivor of the Tuam mother and baby home. She was born there in 1949 and spent five and a half years of her life there until she was boarded out. My grandmother was coerced into the Tuam mother and baby home. She was, therefore, imprisoned in the home and she was trafficked to the psychiatric unit in Castlebar in County Mayo, where she reportedly spent 12 years of her life before she passed away and was buried in a mass grave in Castlebar. A stone was only put up at the mass grave approximately ten years ago by the heritage committee in Castlebar.

With regard to Deputy Dillon's question on the Bill before us, one of the main concerns of the group I represent and with which I work would be to have a larger database for potential siblings and close family members whose loved ones were in the Tuam home in order that there is a guarantee that those babies are returned to their relatives, and that no body is left unidentified or left outstanding at the end of this.