Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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107. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if there has been any investigation by her Department into where children who died in industrial schools have been buried; whether the location of such grave sites are known; and if there has been any investigation into understanding what happened children who went missing from industrial schools. [22878/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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My Department holds certain records relating to former residents of 59 industrial schools and reformatories, who were placed there by way of a Court order. These records generally consist of extracts from Registers, database entries (i.e. computerised versions of the Registers) and some individual pupil and family files, etc. However, it should be noted that the Department generally does not hold any records relating to children who were placed in those institutions other than through the Courts, for example health board referrals or private arrangements. Neither does the Department hold an individual file for each child who was placed through the Courts and, in many instances, the only records available are the relevant extract from the Register.

For this reason, while it appears that a number of the institutions concerned had burial grounds on site, the records held by the Department contain very little information on specific burials.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Institutional Burials Act was commenced by the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in July of last year. This provides the legislative basis for an intervention whereby the remains of those who died in residential institutions, and who were buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner, may be recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way. It also provides for the identification of remains and their return to family members, where possible.

While the Act was developed in response to the discovery of children’s remains at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam which had been interred in a manifestly inappropriate manner, it is not site specific. It therefore provides a framework for dealing with any such sites if the need arises which could include, potentially, sites or institutions which were under the remit of my Department, such as industrial schools. However, under the Act such an intervention is only permitted where there is evidence of manifestly inappropriate burials taking place, and the Act sets out a number of criteria in that regard.

The Deputy may also wish to note that the National Centre for Research and Remembrance, the development of which has been approved by Government, will stand as a national memorial to all those who were resident in relevant institutions, including industrial schools, reformatories, Magdalen Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes and related institutions.