Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 27 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

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

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Ryan-O'Brien for those answers. We are trying to interrogate the whole issue around things such as DNA storage. We know from Mr. Tansey, in a submission to the committee from the group he works with in Tuam, that survivors would have their DNA taken and stored for possible matching with babies' remains that are exhumed. Since then, two of their group have died but no DNA has yet been collected from any survivors who accordingly are increasingly anxious. Therein lies the terrible hurt that can be relieved in the short term. It is about creating a system where evidence gathering is robust such that the restorative justice and the transitional justice that is being spoken about is based on a set of structures and protocols whereby a person has somebody to interface with where things such as DNA are examined and there is an investigatory process that tallies with the law of the land. That is why I am asking about the coronial process. Perhaps Mr. O'Brien could address that further because I am grappling with it at the moment.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.