Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is a very important Bill. I was about to say that this a painful part of our past but it is not. For many people, this is a painful part of their present. It is likely to be a painful part of their future too. I hope that this Bill can help to ease that pain. Perhaps it will not be a painful part of their future, because this Bill will enable us to get truth. From truth we can get justice. From justice we can hopefully bring some healing. Ultimately, it is essential that we do that in order to help heal the scars and the wounds that have been caused by the horrific actions and the horrible things that happened to mothers and their children in these homes.

I thank the Minister for bringing forward the Bill. I will return to specific aspects of it. I thank also Deputy Funchion, as Chair of the committee, for leading our pre-legislative scrutiny. The Bill was one of the first big items of pre-legislative scrutiny we took on as a committee. We found a way to work together and I thank her for herding the cats on the committee and making it work. When we started the pre-legislative scrutiny, there was a sense that the Bill was simply about providing dignified burials, which had been denied, for the children who were lost and had been buried in sites such as that in Tuam. Survivors wanted and needed more, however, and they came before our committee and said that. We started looking for this in our pre-legislative scrutiny, as is detailed in the committee's report, and I am glad to say much of that has made it into the Bill. That has made the Bill stronger and it makes our hope for truth, justice and, ultimately, healing more likely to be achieved.

I note the involvement with the Minister of Dr. Niamh McCullagh. Dr. McCullagh possesses particular expertise. It is important that any exhumation be conducted in accordance with international best practice, that is, the high forensic standard that allows us to understand the truth of what happened, from which we can foster justice and healing. Including in the Bill assurances regarding international best practice and that high standard is very important. There was a promise from some in the Department that that would happen, so I am glad to see that standard has made it in because it needs to be provided for in the Bill to ensure it will happen. Equally, the post-recovery analysis and identification is very important in that quest for truth and justice. It will allow those who have lost relatives or family members or those who have questions about themselves, their past and their family to get answers. It is important that provision has been beefed up and improved and that it is included in the Bill in black and white. That is a very welcome addition.

I echo the words of other Deputies regarding the role of the coroner. It is important we keep that aspect of the Bill. I will save my remarks on the need to reform the office of the coroner for a more appropriate time, but keeping that jurisdiction in there and alive is an essential part of the apparatus of the State to lead, again, to truth, justice and healing. We talk often in the Chamber about matters such as truth, justice and healing. We talk about them in the context of Northern Ireland, the collusion reports and other issues relating to the Troubles, but they are very real in this context too. With the Bill, we have something that will facilitate that and enable us to take a site that has nothing but questions and, in a respectful manner and in accordance with international best practice, find out who is buried there and where their relatives are, and from that be able to piece together truth. From that truth, we will bring justice.

I am grateful the Bill will do that, and I thank the Minister for bringing forward this legislation to enable us to do it.

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