Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to get the opportunity to speak on the resolution the Minister has brought before the House today. As a person who is from Tuam and who went to school in Tuam, this is an issue that is close to my heart in many ways. It has created a sense of a stain on or shadow over Tuam as a town. Tuam is a very good town. It is the capital town in our county of Galway and has the finest people living there. While I agree that the Minister needs to proceed with this effort to appoint a director, one thing is most important with whatever happens from now on. The Minister set out in his speech how a director would be appointed, consultants and experts would be coming in with him or her and that an office will be set up to manage the excavation and all that goes with it. However, it is important that there is local engagement with the people of the town. The office should be set in the town and there should be a liaison aspect to the brief that this director will have so people from the locality who want to know what is going on can find out. We talk about setting out the lands that will be excavated. There are people living in close proximity to the centre of the site who have serious concerns about their properties having to be excavated, including their back gardens and so on. There is a huge amount of work to be done with the local communities and local people on the ground, as well as working with all the other stakeholders. I re-emphasise the fact that the most important stakeholders are the people in Tuam who have been the centre of attention from media worldwide. So be it, but they need to understand what is happening and when it will be happening and they need to have somewhere to go where they can meet somebody if they have a query or an issue, someone who is not based in Dublin or anywhere else in the country. I would expect that to happen.

It is important that we get on with the excavation and trying to identify the children who are buried there. It is also important that that moves as fast as possible. I am sure there is a lot of procurement to be done in terms of engineering, staff and consultants. I hope that will not be clogged up in processes that will delay the whole thing going ahead. We need to get down to getting on with the business as set out in the legislation previously passed here in the Dáil.

I welcome this further step but the people of Tuam and the surrounding areas, the people who believe they have relatives buried there, must know and understand what the next steps are. It must be set out in plain language for them so they understand what is happening and when it will be happening. The director and the office that is to be set up will have a huge role to play in making sure people understand what is happening and when it will be happening. That is the one message I want to give the Minister this evening. We need a hands-on approach on the site from now on because we are getting so near to focusing back on the site itself in a very physical way. I thank the people in the locality for being very understanding of all the intrusion in their lives over the last number of years. For some of them, it has been a tough time. Now is the time for us to make sure we ease what will have to happen over the next number of months and years.

See this speech in context