Written answers

Thursday, 16 June 2022

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Residential Institutions

Photo of Pa DalyPa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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411. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the plans that are within the proposals for a national memorial and records centre to commemorate those who were boarded out from State care. [31650/22]

Photo of Roderic O'GormanRoderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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On 29 March, the Government approved high-level proposals for a National Centre for Research and Remembrance. The establishment of the National Centre is a core commitment in the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions; the overarching aim of which is to support the implementation of the 22 commitments made by Government in response to the publication of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Report.

The National Centre will be located on the site of the former Magdalen Laundry on Sean McDermott Street in Dublin 1. It will stand as a site of conscience, and will be a national memorial to honour equally all those who were resident in institutions such as Mother and Baby Homes, Industrial Schools, Reformatories, Magdalen Laundries and the comparable experiences of those who were boarded out.

The National Centre will include a museum, an exhibition space, a central repository of records related to institutional trauma and a research centre. It will also contain a dedicated place for solemn reflection and remembrance. In addition, as part of the development of the site, social housing units, local community facilities and an educational and early learning facility will be constructed. The inclusion of these facilities will make a valuable contribution to the social and economic development of Dublin’s North East Inner City.

The central repository of institutional records will sit at the heart of the National Centre. One unique aspect of the central repository will be the inclusion of the personal testimonies of survivors; allowing the lived experiences of survivors to be formally accepted as part of the official record.

While physically situated in Dublin, the National Centre will be accessible for all survivors, whether in other parts of Ireland or abroad. It will provide digital access to records and exhibits, to enable survivors to visit more easily. In this way, the Centre will be a national institution, which achieves a global and national reach, as well as strong connections to, and benefits for, the local community.

Work is underway to progress the initial planning and development stages of the National Centre.

In addition to the development of the National Centre, the Action Plancontains a series of measures addressing matters relating to individuals who were boarded out. Notably, the Birth Information and Tracing Bill, which has now passed all stages in Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, provides for a full and clear right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life information for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins.

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