Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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I come from a slightly different angle. I am also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which recently dealt with mother and baby homes, institutional burials, and birth information and tracing. The latter is not as relevant to this. We had discussions about the Magdalen laundries and industrial schools. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth attended the public hearing on the planning application for the Bessborough site because it is the location of potential burial grounds.

Religious institutions and religious areas have been excluded from protection perhaps because they are deemed modern. This includes buildings such as the former industrial schools. Concern has been raised by Dr. Niamh McCullagh and the Cork survivors group. Does this legislation leave that gap? Does it afford any protection? Will it cover those sorts of situations?