Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the Chamber. I will be concise, given we have little time to get through the amendments. The amendment will amend the meaning of "principal burial land" in the interpretation section. Currently, the section defines a principal burial land as land "associated with an institution where burials have taken place ... of persons who died while resident at the institution, and ... which were manifestly inappropriate". As drafted, there are two criteria, namely, the person must have died while a resident and must have been buried before the State may intervene. The requirement to meet both criteria is, potentially, a barrier and the amendment will change the wording such that only one requirement will apply. The fact that, for example, a young woman, a baby or a child died in a home or was inappropriately buried there should be enough in and of itself to trigger an intervention. It does not seem right that either of these circumstances on its own would not be serious enough to warrant an investigation.

Amendment No. 2 seeks to revise the scope of the Bill to align it with the international definition of “mass grave sites”, namely, that which has been derived from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It will incorporate this best-practice definition into the interpretation of what constitutes a principal burial site to ensure intervention will occur in a broader range of burials, whether they are inappropriate in terms of the nature of the burial or of the nature of the death of those persons who were buried.

Amendment No. 3 is closely related to amendment No. 1. As outlined, the Bill currently specifies that authorised interventions will be limited to cases where a person died while ordinarily resident in an institution and where he or she was buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner. Two criteria must be met before the State may act, namely, the person must have died while a resident and must have been buried inappropriately. The requirement to meet both criteria could be a barrier and, in our view, one should be sufficient. Amendment No. 3 will change the wording of the section such that only one of the criteria will be required.

Amendment No. 4 seeks to revise the scope of the Bill to align it with the international best-practice definition of "mass grave sites" to include any burial site where the circumstances surrounding the death, body-disposal method or both warrant an investigation as to their lawfulness. This will incorporate the best-practice definition into the section, which provides for the establishment, by order of the Government, of an office of the director of authorised intervention. Doing so will ensure the intervention and investigation occur in respect of the broadest possible range of inappropriate burials.

Amendment No. 12 will add a function to directors of authorised intervention to include the arranging of the forensic excavation and recovery of remains where there is a concern the person's death occurred in a violent, unnatural, sudden or unknown manner. The current provision is too narrow in that it specifies that only the circumstances of the burial be considered when assessing whether forensic excavation and recovery should be arranged by the director. As previously noted, the pre-legislative scrutiny report of the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth recommended that interventions give due consideration to suspicious or unlawful deaths as well as to the existence of inappropriate burials. The amendment acts on this recommendation as it relates to the arranging of forensic excavation and recovery by the director of authorised intervention.

Finally, amendment No. 16 seeks to expand the provisions relating to the obligations on a director of authorised intervention to notify An Garda Síochána and the coroner of certain evidence. As drafted, section 36 specifies An Garda Síochána and the coroner must be notified by a director where evidence emerges that human remains were buried in the principal burial land following death in violent or unnatural circumstances.This means that even though a child, or mother or young woman may have died in an unknown or suspicious way, this will not be referred to the Garda or the coroner for further investigation, despite the fact the death may well have occurred in a violent or unnatural way. This amendment expands on the current provision by including death in suspicious or undetermined circumstances. This ensures that where the cause of death is undetermined or unclear but suspicious, the Garda and coroner would be notified and further investigation could ensue. This amendment acts on the 6th recommendation in the pre-legislative scrutiny report by the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, which stated that intervention should give due consideration to suspicious or unlawful deaths.