Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I understand that what we are doing is a delicate and complex job. I commend the Minister on getting the Bill to the floor of the Dáil and seeking to progress it. Much work has been done in developing the legislation. Much discussion has gone into it as well. Nonetheless, as Opposition Deputies, it is our job to critique the Bill, identify failings in it and suggests improvements that might be made. There are some difficulties with the Bill as it stands.

In the region of 800 babies died in the home in Tuam. I can find burial records for only two of them - Vincent Hanon, who died aged one month in 1936, and Mary Margaret Jordan, who died at the age of one in 1932. Vincent and Mary Margaret were buried in the graveyard on Athenry Road in Tuam. Other than that, I can only presume that the remains of the other 800 babies are at the site in Tuam.

The Minister's press release on the topic from last week talks about the identification programme that has been expanded to include the participation of grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces. I understand that it is complex and confusing, but there is a difficulty with this in that the Minister may be out of touch with the situation as it stands. Does he really believe that babies who died in the mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961 will have grandparents who are still alive? The remains that will be exhumed will be those of babies and young children. The commission identified the presence of remains at the site and was clear that these are infant remains, yet the Minister has included in the Bill a reference to grandchildren. It is confusing. How would someone who died when he or she was a baby or a young child have grandchildren alive today? If these are grandchildren of the parents of those young children, they are uncles or aunts of those children or siblings. I would be grateful if the Minister could explain this.

The Minister does not seem to have identified the likelihood that there will be many unidentified babies' remains in the grave in Tuam. In my view, the proportion of the 800 babies' remains that may not be identified under the current scheme could be as high as half.

Any one of us in this Chamber could have had an aunt or uncle who died in a mother and baby home as a child and who we will never know existed. It is my understanding that the people of Tuam will not be able to come forward to provide DNA samples unless they know or suspect that they had relatives who died in the home. If that is the case, it will be impossible to identify the remains of every child at that site. What plans does the Minister have for the remains of the many children who may be unidentified? I would take the lead from survivors on this, but it may be appropriate for Galway County Council, which owned and controlled the mother and baby home, to provide respectful graves for these unidentified babies.

I am not sure whether the Minister comprehends fully the culture that surrounds this matter. There is certainly a culture of secrecy in relation to it-----

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