Results 7,161-7,180 of 11,700 for speaker:Roderic O'Gorman

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: As Deputy Cairns said, these amendments aim to transform what the legislation is seeking to do by setting up an agency for a finite duration to examine a site where manifestly inappropriate burials took place. It is for that reason I cannot accept this set of amendments. The Deputy is right that no one is questioning the need to intervene in Tuam. We know that manifestly inappropriate...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: Irish legislation makes provision for situations where a similar investigative approach may be needed but where we do not know if it will be needed. For example, tribunals of inquiry legislation enables us to set up tribunals when a specific issue needs to be addressed but it does not create a standing tribunal that is there in case a particular issue needs the process of a tribunal....

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: In this year's budgetary allocation, my Department has already been given €4 million to begin the work on the creation and resourcing of the agency to commence the work in Tuam. Once this legislation is passed, we can rapidly move to establishing the agency. I know that family members and those in Tuam particularly welcome that. Every Minister who wants to do anything under any...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are giving very significant powers to the director and the agency. It is appropriate and necessary that where they may use those powers is delineated by a map to be brought forward in the initial proposal. That map can be changed. As the Deputy indicated, if attention is brought to a site extending further, the director may inform the Minister and the map may be changed by a subsequent...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: As Deputy Cairns is aware, in the original heads of the Bill that were discussed during the pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, process, there was a provision that stated if there is a private residence on the land on which a proposed intervention is to take place, the intervention could not take place. We discussed the impact digging up and excavating the site would have on the owner of the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: In making a decision to intervene in any site, the Government must balance the need to undertake the intervention, recognising the manifest inappropriateness of a particular set of burials, with the need to respect the long-standing tradition of the sanctity of burials, which is something we have discussed previously. As we know, the excavation and recovery of human remains is a very...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will seek to deal with the three elements laid out by the Deputy. I would argue there is a strong rationale for excluding official burial grounds and retaining the time period applicable in the legislation. It is important to ensure appropriately buried human remains are not disturbed unnecessarily. In addition, we need to take into account health and safety considerations. Section 44...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This section is in place to recognise that there may be circumstances in which, irrespective of the manifestly appropriate nature of a burial, the relatives of those buried at the site may feel, for whatever reason, that an intervention involving the excavation of remains is not necessary. As I have said, excluding the Tuam site, there are differing views on the appropriateness of...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: That is when the Government or the Minister of the day would have to engage with relatives, ascertain views and seek to make its decision and justify its substantive reasons. My sense is that if there was a strong view among a significant proportion of relatives that there was a need for intervention, it would it be difficult not to do that. Again, we are talking in the abstract here, but...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: This amendment proposes to delete the power of the relevant Minister to alter the functions of the director and any such alteration would require agreement from the Government. I make it clear that the purpose of the existing provision is not to prevent the director from undertaking certain activity. Any such proposal that the Government would have to alter the scope of the director's role...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: My concern with these two amendments from Deputy Ward is that they would interfere with the definitions that are necessary to aid the clear interpretation of the criteria that define “manifestly inappropriate burials”. In regard to amendment No. 28, that would remove the phrase “at the time of such burial” from subsection 8(1)(b) and would, therefore, undermine...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I looked at this amendment earlier. Section 8(2) of the Bill states: For the purposes of subsection (1), regard shall be had to available evidence including— (a) any expert technical reports or other reliable information in respect of the condition, location and age of the burials concerned, and (b) any reliable and corroborated statement made by a person with knowledge of the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I cannot accept these amendments in their current form but I understand and welcome the intention behind them. I am particularly supportive of the spirit of amendment No. 40 and I am willing to consider a revision to section 10(b)(iii) to explicitly refer to identifying the circumstances and cause of death, where that is possible. I will also look at whether the description of the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: As the Deputy knows, the idea of the advisory board was introduced following the pre-legislative scrutiny process to ensure a wider degree of views would feed into the operation of the director and the agency. It was introduced in particular to ensure expertise not directly commissioned or hired by the agency and independent of it would be able to exert influence on decisions on the...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I take the Deputy's point about the local authority role. We have seen some local authorities make apologies and I would like to see more make apologies.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I hope we will see that. It is difficult. The Deputy and I have served in local authorities and all those I worked with - and I assume the Deputy's experience is the same - were by and large good people who could in no way be associated with some of the practices done in the name of local authorities by agencies. At the same time, there is the link that the Deputy points to. It is one of...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I cannot commit to changing this but we can have a look at it. I am not sure how exactly we could ensure that element of connection with the local mechanisms could be reflected on the body. We will consider it further and the Deputy may also bring forward an amendment on Report Stage if she feels it is necessary.

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I will speak to amendments Nos. 44 to 48, inclusive, together. As Deputy Ward states, the proposal is to more broadly define the definition of "information source". We are confident the provisions under section 27(5)(c) already include the bodies listed by Deputy Ward as potential sources of information. Under section 27(4), the Minister also has power to designate a person as an...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I hope I can provide some clarification here. Section 29 solely relates to the archive of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. As the Deputy will be aware, in the database legislation from 2020, we preserved that archive and ensured it was not deleted. We also sent a copy of it to Tusla and that archive copy resides with Tusla only, not the Adoption Authority of...

Select Committee on Children and Youth Affairs: Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage (3 May 2022)

Roderic O'Gorman: I cannot accept these two amendments. Deputy Ward is absolutely right as regards the complexity of the work that will have to take place for the recovery of these remains. Following on from the pre-legislative scrutiny process where this issue was flagged extensively with us, the provision in the general scheme was significantly revised to ensure that appropriately qualified persons deliver...