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Enacted Dáil
No. 23 of 2022

Institutional Burials Bill 2022

Public bill · Government · Presented

The measure would set up a special state office to investigate burial sites linked to institutions run or funded by public bodies, uncover human remains buried in an improper way, and arrange dignified recovery and reburial or return of remains. It would also create a DNA identification process so relatives can take part, help identify recovered remains, and protect sensitive personal data, while giving investigators powers to access land, pause other works, and seek compensation where property rights are affected. It matters because it aims to give families answers and closure, while dealing carefully with evidence, privacy, and the rights of landowners.

Formal long title

Bill entitled an Act to provide for the appointment from time to time by the Government of a corporation sole, to be called a Director of Authorised Intervention, for the purposes of excavating land associated with an institution owned, operated, controlled or funded by a public body and, having regard to the need to accord dignity to persons buried in that land, recovering human remains buried in that land in a manifestly inappropriate manner; to provide, where appropriate, for the establishment of an Identification Programme; to provide for the participation of certain relatives of persons thought to be buried in the land concerned in the Programme; to provide for the establishment, by Forensic Science Ireland, of a DNA (Historic Remains) Database and a related Database for personal information for the purposes of that Programme; to provide for final arrangements for the human remains recovered from such land; for those and related purposes to enable a Director in certain circumstances to access and carry out works over principal burial land and ancillary burial land and, where necessary, on land ancillary to principal burial land and ancillary burial land and to provide for the payment of compensation in certain circumstances to persons for interference with an interest in or right over such land; to provide for the carrying out of remedial works on land when work on the land concerned is completed; to provide for the establishment of an Advisory Board to provide advice and guidance to a Director in the performance of his or her functions; to provide that a relevant Minister may make regulations, having regard to potential developments in forensic science, to enable forensic testing of samples in certain circumstances for the purposes of identification of human remains after an Identification Programme is completed; to provide, on the dissolution of an Office of Director, for the transfer of any remaining functions, rights, liabilities and records to a relevant Minister; to amend the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 and the Planning and Development Act 2000; and to provide for related matters.

Last updated 11 September 2024

Sponsor
  • Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Primary
Progress
  • First Stage
    Dáil
  • Second Stage
    Dáil
  • Committee Stage
    Dáil
  • Report Stage
    Dáil
  • Fifth Stage
    Dáil
  • Second Stage
    Seanad
  • Committee Stage
    Seanad
  • Report Stage
    Seanad
  • Fifth Stage
    Seanad Enacted
  • Enacted
    Enacted
Debates
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages
    Seanad
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage
    Seanad
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Second Stage
    Seanad
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Report and Final Stages
    Dáil
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage
    Select Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Referral to Select Committee
    Dáil
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Second Stage (Resumed)
    Dáil
  • Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Second Stage
    Dáil

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