Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 20:

In page 16, to delete lines 20 to 32 and substitute the following:

"(3) In determining whether the making of an order under section 7(1), the Government shall consider whether the proposed intervention is proportionate having regard to the need to respect the views of the relatives of persons buried in the land.".

Section 8(3) sets out a general purpose interest which the Government must consider when establishing intervention. What it essentially does is restrict interventions based on several broad and ill-defined grounds, including public health, potential impact on archeological features and, most worryingly, the social and economic interests of the State. It would appear to be an arbitrary and unclear list that elevates matters such as archeological features to having equal parity with an obligation to examine a mass grave. The committee's pre-legislative scrutiny recommended the removal of barriers. Unfortunately, the inclusion of this list means that these limitations can be deployed to block any intervention.

This provision is not consistent with the transition justice principles as it gives the Minister, the Department and Government a multitude of reasons never to intervene in a site. This legislation should be doing the opposite - prioritising interventions and making it clear that every site should and will be examined.

Witnesses to the committee and the committee's pre-legislative scrutiny report called for a system and process that is founded on internationally-defined criteria, not ambiguous and restrictive approaches. This amendment seeks to remove all of these restrictions, except for the requirement to respect the views of the relatives of the persons buried at the site. This would be a transitional justice approach in which the need for justice and the perspectives of relatives are at the centre of the process, not Ministers, civil servants or economic interests.

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