Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 17:

In page 16, line 7, to delete “at the time of such burial,”.

These amendments are linked. The rationale is the same. The crux of what we are trying to get at is that there is no principal reason to specify that contemporary burial practices from the 1940s, 1950s and either earlier or later should apply to any potential burial lands. An example of this would be that, in certain situations the practice at times was that babies, particularly if they had not been baptised at the time, had died in childbirth or were stillborn, were possibly buried in a different situation than would be acceptable now. We do not want any situation to arise whereby those burials might be seen as being acceptable for the time. I hope I am explaining that as I mean it and not in any disrespectful way to anyone who at the time felt that was appropriate. What we are trying to do is ensure that, if there is a suspicious situation, it would not be left undiscovered because somebody might say it was appropriate at the time. Obviously, that would not be appropriate and nobody would accept that now in the modern age. That is why we want to make these two amendments, to delete “at the time of such burial” and, in amendment No. 18, to delete “and would reasonably have been so considered at the time the burials took place”, to ensure there are no grey areas in that situation.

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