Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This amendment proposes to delete the lines in the Bill that allow the Government to choose to create a memorial instead of excavating a site and replace them with a paragraph providing that the Government must make every effort possible to excavate a site and overcome any difficulties that may arise. Only once all possible routes to examination of a site have been exhausted should the Government consider a memorial and nothing else.

This amendment is also about removing barriers. There should be no easy outs for the Government when it comes to excavating institutional burial sites. Every site should be examined fully. It is in the public interest to examine every single one of these sites, so long as there are living families who desire information about relatives buried in them. As I have said many times already, this is about the truth and closure. These can only be achieved if we do the hard work of examining the burials.

This amendment is slightly different from the version I tabled on Committee Stage, in that it specifies that the Government shall consult with relevant persons and parties when deciding whether it is necessary and proportionate to thoroughly examine burials on the land. It ensures that creating a memorial is not used as a window-dressing exercise to avoid excavation of a burial site. The amendment ensures that a memorial, without further intervention, is only ever a last resort.

Amendment No. 10, like amendment No. 9, seeks to remove from the Bill the provision that equips the Government with the power to unilaterally decide not to intervene on a site where it decides memorialisation is more appropriate than intervention. The Government has a positive legal obligation under the European Convention of Human Rights Act 2003 to investigate all sites where there are suspicious circumstances surrounding death. These investigations can happen without excavations and do not preclude memorialisation. Memorialisation should complement rather than replace the process of intervening in and investigating mass graves. Any decisions concerning memorialisation should include meaningful participation by survivors and family members. Regardless of the outcome of consultation with families and survivors in relation to a particular site, the legal obligation on the State to carry out investigations into the deaths of the individuals buried there, if the circumstances are suspicious, should be provided for in the Bill. This amendment would achieve this.