Some 19,000 women and children passed through Bessborough in Cork when it operated as a mother and baby home. It only closed in 1998. This is part of our very recent history in Ireland. It is part of our past, it is part of our present and it is certainly part of our future as a country. About 10% of the women who were sent there were from County Kerry, where the Minister responsible for children, Deputy Foley, resides. This affected women all across Munster, including Cork and all throughout Ireland.

I commend those who protested yesterday at the gates of Leinster House. The protest was organised by Councillor Noelle Brown who is a survivor. It was just incredible to hear the courageous women speaking about their experiences and how they are affected by the trauma of what they experienced as a result of these institutions. Women were sent there through no choice of their own. The State, religious institutions and society as a whole colluded against these women and pretended that shame was justice. 923 babies died at Bessborough, of whom 859 are unaccounted for. There are just 64 with records. Marasmus was frequently cited as a cause of death. Marasmus was severe malnutrition.

Ireland now risks taking part in a further wrong to cover over our national shame by bulldozing over the memories of those women and entombing this resting place of babies with concrete, covering the area with apartments. The planning permission to grant 140 private apartments on this site by Cork City Council is wrong. The commission of investigation found it highly likely that juvenile remains would be on this site. No radar penetration survey was done on this site. The full archive was not published. The State has current responsibility for providing justice for survivors. The State cannot discharge its responsibility for what happened in Bessborough and other sites like this throughout this country. That is why a Labour Party councillor, Peter Horgan, my colleague in Cork, has lodged an appeal this week in relation to this planning, along with Carmel Cantwell who is a campaigner with survivors.

There are 70 conditions attached to the current planning permission. Some of them state that the building and the diggers will have to stop if they find juvenile remains and that an archaeologist should be on site. However, I believe that this is an admission that it is highly likely that there are remains there. Why is the State not conducting this survey and excavation itself? Why is it allowing private developers to do this? It is a kick in the teeth and shows the utmost disrespect to the survivors and those who suffered at Bessborough.

I believe it should be a memorial and education centre where schools can go and children can learn about our history. It should not be sold off. Only 60 acres of the site are left. Much of the land is already gone. Do those babies who died there matter? Are some children more valuable than others? I have to ask these questions. What is being done to protect sites such as Bessborough? What has been done to date by the State in regard to this matter?

I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality. I thank the Senator for raising this very sensitive and important issue. It offers the Minister, Deputy Foley, a chance to respond.

I am very conscious of the hurt felt by survivors and family members of people who died in institutions. The commission of investigation into mother and baby homes was established in 2015, as the Senator knows, to investigate issues associated with mother and baby institutions, including deaths and burial arrangements. Its findings in relation to each institution are set out in its reports. The commission confirmed the presence of juvenile remains, buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner, at the site of the former mother and baby institution in Tuam.

In 2022, the Government directed the establishment of the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam to manage and oversee the excavation, recovery, analysis, identification, if possible, and reburial of the children’s remains at the site. The intervention is being carried out under the provisions of the Institutional Burials Act 2022, which provides for the appointment of a director where the Government is satisfied that burials have taken place and where there is evidence that those burials are manifestly inappropriate. The Tuam director was appointed in 2023. Preliminary groundworks were completed at the site at the end of 2024 and the excavation commenced in July 2025. Since starting the excavation, the director has published five technical updates. These are all available on his office’s website at www.odait.ie.

Turning to Bessborough, one of the tragic aspects of the commission’s findings in relation to the former institution is that there is uncertainty regarding the burial place of many children who were resident there. The commission carried out cartographic and landscape assessments of possible unrecorded burial arrangements in Bessborough. It also carried out a site survey and followed up with people in response to its appeal seeking information about burials, but it was unable to find any evidence of burials of the children who died at Bessborough in the grounds. As no evidence of burial locations was found, the commission did not consider it feasible to excavate the full available site, which amounts to 60 acres, or indeed the former 200-acre estate, parts of which have now been built on. While I understand that there have been calls for further investigations, it is important to note that there are differing views among survivor groups about how the site should now be treated.

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. On foot of the action plan, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage wrote to local authorities, including Cork City Council, requesting that development plan processes give adequate consideration to incorporating appropriate measures to ensure the protection of unrecorded burial sites associated with an institution.

Before I ask the Senator to respond, I welcome our colleague Senator Alison Comyn and her guest, Ms Kirsty King from Downpatrick, a journalist, to the Public Gallery. Ms King is very welcome and I hope she enjoys her day. She is in good hands there. I call Senator Harmon.

I thank the Minister of State for her response. In 2021, the then, and current, Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, when he was giving a State apology, said, “It is the duty of a republic to be willing to hold itself to account". He also said that we need to confront the truth and uncomfortable parts of our history. I wonder if those words were empty, because I believe much more action is needed to provide justice for survivors.

Survivors need to be absolutely central to any decisions made regarding that site and what will happen with it. Their views need to be taken on board. While surveys were conducted, no radar penetration surveys were conducted on that site. It is very remiss that we would allow private developers onto that site with the potential of juvenile human remains on it. It is the utmost disrespect. If there was a headline in the paper this morning saying 859 babies were missing, there would be a national campaign to find them. I believe the State has not done enough and has abdicated its responsibility by not stepping in. Can the State step in regarding this matter and is it willing to do so?

I thank the Senator for raising not just an important issue but a sensitive one, as I said. The investigation of burial arrangements in mother and baby institutions, including at Bessborough, was an important part of the work of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. The response outlined its findings in relation to former institutions at Tuam and Bessborough.

Time will not allow me to outline the investigations of burial arrangements at other institutions, but to come back to what the Senator spoke about, I am aware that planning permission has recently been granted to a development at the Bessborough site. Obviously, planning decisions are a matter for the relevant planning authorities. However, I note that in this instance Cork City Council has attached a number of conditions. I think they are important conditions. These include requirements to have a forensic archaeological monitoring strategy and a forensic archaeologist in place to monitor excavation at the site. It is also specified that if human remains are located, all work on the site should cease and the relevant authorities should be informed.

The Government’s action plan contains clear commitments in relation to dignified local memorialisation of known or agreed burial sites. I have more to say here, but I recognise that my time has run out. I am not sure how to word this because it is such a sensitive and difficult issue, but I will personally ensure that the Senator’s concerns are brought to the Minister in question. I thank the Senator.