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

On 24 March, the Government approved high-level proposals for a national centre for research and remembrance. The establishment of the national centre is a core commitment in the action plan for survivors and former residents of mother and baby and county home institutions. The national centre will be located on the site of the former Magdalen laundry on Seán McDermott Street in Dublin 1. It will stand as a site of conscience and will be a national memorial to honour equally all those who were resident in mother and baby homes, industrial schools, reformatories, Magdalen laundries and related institutions.

The national centre will include a museum, an exhibition space, a central repository of records related to institutional trauma and a research centre. It will also contain a dedicated place for solemn reflection and remembrance. In addition, as part of the development of the site, social housing units, local community facilities and an educational and early learning facility will be constructed. The inclusion of these facilities will make a valuable contribution to the social and economic development of Dublin's north-east inner city.

While physically situated in Dublin, the national centre will be accessible for all survivors, whether in other parts of Ireland or abroad. It will provide digital access to records and exhibits, as well as developing physical presences elsewhere, including in conjunction with some local museums, to enable survivors to visit more easily. In this way, the centre will be a national institution which achieves a global and national reach, as well as strong connections to and benefits for the local community.

Work is under way to progress the initial planning and development stages of the national centre. This is being driven by a steering group chaired by the former secretary general to the Government and ambassador-designate to the United Kingdom. The steering group has met on two occasions to date and will meet again this month. It is currently establishing a number of work streams spanning various technical aspects of the initiative, as well as engagement with survivors and the local community in Dublin's north inner city. This will ensure that the development of the national centre is directly informed by those most centrally involved, their families and representatives.

The creation of the national centre is a major multi-annual project. While I am not in a position to provide any definitive timeline as yet, an indicative timeline of five years has been provided to me by the steering group. It is hoped that some initial maintenance and structural work to facilitate building surveys could take place on the site this year.

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