Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In terms of its accountability, the agency will have a director and as I indicated earlier, that director will be accountable to the Oireachtas committees. There will be an obligation to provide an annual report on the activities of the agency as well as its interactions with other State agencies. I am conscious that what this agency will be doing is incredibly sensitive in terms of the exhumation of the remains of infants and children and its role in seeking to link living relatives with those remains. These are some of the incredibly difficult and sensitive tasks with which the agency will be charged. How we design the functioning of the agency in legislation is something I want to consider more, particularly how we design an agency that is doing something incredibly sensitive on one side, but incredibly technical on the other. We have legislated very significantly for the technical element but it is important that we do not omit the requirement for sensitivity. I am conscious of the need to have some element of protection or oversight of the agency's engagements, particularly with families. I have not fully fleshed that out yet and would be interested in what committee members have to say in that regard. In terms of its accountability, if something falls there, I do not think it will be enough that it gets raised at an Oireachtas committee or something like that because it is so central to what we are trying to achieve here that families feel that their needs are being accommodated by the agency. I have not made a final call on that but having looked through the heads of the Bill and listened to the various points made, in as much as it has a technical role, it has a deeply sensitive role as well and we need to make sure that is clear from the initiation of any agency