Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Senator noted, we are balancing a range of rights in our interventions here. Rights in regard to property are a set of rights as well. The extent to which we value them is questionable but they are protected and have to be assessed in a decision on any intervention. The clear tenet of this legislation is such that where we have identified a burial site that meets a manifestly inappropriate standard, we wish to address that. When a law is passed, it has to have a balancing mechanism built in. If we did not have some element of balancing, there is a risk that it would be constitutionally challenged. Having that balancing mechanism built in and listing the considerations certainly does not mean that this Government or future governments applying them would give undue weight to private property where there has been a manifestly inappropriate burial, whether in Tuam or at other sites.