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

Since its publication last November, there has been strong progress in implementing many of the key commitments in the action plan. Of the 22 actions, eight have already been completed while 12 are in progress. Key achievements include the enactment of the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, to conclusively address the wrongful denial of people's identity rights; the launch of a comprehensive public information campaign and the establishment of a new contact preference register under the Act, paving the way for information and tracing services to open in October 2022; the passage through the Houses of the Institutional Burials Bill 2022, having gone through the Seanad last night, and referral to the President for his consideration, which will provide the legal basis for an intervention at Tuam; and the publication of heads of Bill of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme Bill, to provide financial payments and a form of enhanced medical card to eligible applicants. The heads were referred to the relevant Oireachtas joint committee for pre-legislative scrutiny and I will receive the report of the committee shortly.

In addition, good progress is being made on the national centre for research and remembrance. Following Government approval of the high-level proposals for the centre on 29 March, a steering group was established and met on three occasions. Earlier this week, Dublin City Council voted to transfer the proposed site for the centre to the Office of Public Works, marking another step towards the development of this important national site of conscience. Work also continues on local memorialisation and, in this regard, a consultative process with survivor advocacy groups and representatives, led by independent facilitators, took place throughout June. Importantly, dedicated and professional counselling support continues to be available nationwide with priority access of the services given to survivors.

In addition to an annual progress report, which will be laid before the Houses towards the end of the year, my Department continues to prepare quarterly progress updates. On 31 May, the second of these updates was issued directly to every person who provided their contact information to the Department's dedicated mailing list. The update was also published on the Department's website.

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