Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 10, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following: “(ii) of persons whose death may have occurred in a violent or unnatural manner, or suddenly and from unknown causes, or”.

While the Bill makes significant progress in providing a framework to address some of the horrific aspects of modern Irish history, it falls short of international transitional justice standards. The Bill currently only allows for interventions at sites in instances of manifestly inappropriate burials. This means that even though young women or children may have died in unnatural, unknown or suspicious circumstances, this is not in itself a reason for an examination. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties recommended the use of the UN special rapporteur's definition of mass grave sites as including any burial site where the circumstances surrounding the death and-or body disposal method warrant an investigation as to their lawfulness. Similarly, the Adoption Rights Alliance noted the current imbalance in the Bill, with interventions based on the existence of inappropriate burials rather than suspicious or unlawful deaths. Witnesses such as representatives from the Tuam Home Survivors Network and the Guernica Group pointed out that we know about the practices of neglect, malnutrition and malpractice in these institutions. All deaths associated with these homes are already suspicious and need to be investigated. The international standard for transitional justice in this area is clear. The State should intervene in cases where either the cause of death or the method of burial is in question. This Bill falls short of reaching that standard and therefore fails to provide the justice the deceased, the survivors and their relatives deserve.

The Minister will probably repeat the objections he raised on Committee Stage regarding this amendment, particularly that any intervention or investigation in respect of violent or unnatural death should clearly come under the remit of An Garda Síochána and the coroner. It posits a false dichotomy to state these amendments represent an interference with the jurisdiction of An Garda Síochána and the coroner, and it is blatantly false. My amendment, following international human rights standards, alters the reasons to intervene, not what happens thereafter. The Bill has a clear architecture for how the director interacts with other relevant State bodies.

More significantly, however, this is the last chance for so many to obtain justice. For decades, known burial grounds have not been examined. Unless this Bill is changed, that will remain the case. Historically, State systems overlooked and even colluded in the human rights abuses and crimes in mother and baby homes and other institutions. More recently, under-resourcing and a lack of sufficient evidence are cited as reasons for non-intervention. Unless this Bill is amended, the status quowill remain, and given the age profile of survivors, mothers and living witnesses, including State officials and members of the religious orders, any hope of a rationale for intervention by An Garda Síochána or a coroner will simply fade away. Today, when faced with those realities and when my colleague Deputy Cairns and I know inaction perpetuates decades of injustice, we feel we must respond. Unless an intervention can be established because of suspected unlawful death, many sites of potentially horrific crimes and abuses will remain covered up or buried. For too long, this has been the State’s de facto policy. This Bill must align with international human rights and transitional justice standards. It must provide justice for the deceased, the survivors and their relatives.

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