It is absolutely reprehensible that planning permission has been granted for apartments on the site of the former mother and baby home at Bessborough. We have 19 mothers and 859 infants associated with Bessborough still missing. Now 140 apartments are going to be built on a mass grave. We need statements on this next week. The Labour Party has sought that. I have gone through the report myself. It is disgusting. Its language is callous. It minimises the horror and the suffering of the poor people who were incarcerated and died at Bessborough. The State needs to intervene. The Taoiseach was clear when he said Cork City Council should have bought the site. What needs to happen now is for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to meet the survivors as soon as possible and the Government needs to intervene and make a compulsory purchase order for the site and bring it into public ownership.

We need a compassionate response from the Government that really puts survivors and victims to the fore in this case. I have not read the report from An Coimisiún Pleanála but I will relay the Deputy’s concerns to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. Obviously, I cannot make a statement on the floor of the House unilaterally that requires action without the imprimatur of my government colleagues but, as I said, victims and survivors come first in a very dark history of our State.