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

As Deputy Cairns said, these amendments aim to transform what the legislation is seeking to do by setting up an agency for a finite duration to examine a site where manifestly inappropriate burials took place. It is for that reason I cannot accept this set of amendments. The Deputy is right that no one is questioning the need to intervene in Tuam. We know that manifestly inappropriate burials have taken place there and when that was discovered, the Government of the day was advised that bespoke legislation was required to respond to that discovery. While the intervention that will be initiated later this year will take a long period of time, likely years, it is a discrete piece of work and will come to an end once all excavation, recovery, post-recovery analysis and identification have taken place and the remains have either been reinterred or returned to relatives. If no similar manifestly inappropriate burial site has been ascertained at that point, it is difficult to see what the purpose of having a standing agency would be.

Amendment No. 11 would remove the words "from time to time" from section 7. That enables the Government to establish an office of a director of authorised intervention for a specific period and it also enables the Government to establish a new office on each occasion that an intervention is required. The aim of this section is to establish an office of a finite duration, as I say, to intervene at a given burial site associated with an institution where there are manifestly inappropriate burials. One of the reasons we have taken an approach that includes a site-specific agency and a site-specific director is that it ensures the work of that agency is fully geared towards and focused on the excavation at that particular site. It ensures that the advisory board that is set up will include family members or survivors of that specific institution so that survivors and former residents of the institution can influence the actions and work of the agency. I think that represents the best way of responding to the unique situation in Tuam and any such situation that may exist at a future site.

Similarly, amendment No. 23 seeks to remove the phrase "from time to time" from section 7(6). That section enables the Government to amend the functions it has assigned to the director in an area of land. The words "from time to time" are included because of the potential for multiple organisations carrying out multiple interventions over time and the finite duration of each intervention.

Amendments Nos. 33, 35 and 37 are closely related. Amendment No. 33 would prevent the office being established for the initial period required to undertake the intervention at the Tuam site and would prevent the extension of such a period. It would also stop the office being identified with the Tuam burial site. Amendment No. 35 would result in the appointment of a director without any period of appointment being specified. We do not believe that is the right direction to take. We believe that a dedicated agency focused on a particular site is the best way to go and, as such, we cannot accept this set of amendments.