Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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668. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the actions have been taken under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 to protect the sites associated with mother and baby homes; the engagement her Department has had with relevant county councils regarding the memorialisation and protection of these sites; and the steps being taken to preserve the dignity of these burial locations and the future use of these properties. [31860/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The Institutional Burials Act 2022 provides the underlying 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. The legislation requires that Government must be satisfied that burials have taken place and must have evidence that those burials are manifestly inappropriate in order to appoint a Director of Authorised Intervention to undertake an excavation and recovery of remains at a site associated with a particular institution.

In 2022 the Government directed the establishment of an independent Office under the 2022 Act to undertake an intervention at the site associated with the former Mother and Baby institution in Tuam. The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam was established in March 2023 and the Director appointed in May 2023. The Tuam Director recently announced that works to forensically excavate the site would get underway this week.

The Government’s response to the legacy of Mother and Baby institutions is set out in the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. Actions related to local memorialisation are being progressed by a working group established by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The working group’s report, which will include guidelines for how local authorities engage with survivors, including in relation to local memorialisation, is at an advanced drafting stage.

In addition, in November 2022, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage wrote to all City and County Councils requesting that Development Plan processes give adequate consideration to incorporating appropriate measures to ensure the protection of unrecorded burial sites associated with an institution.