Excavations to recover and identify the remains of children at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam could continue until early 2025 after they commence at the end of this year.
The timescale for the excavation was revealed this week when the Cabinet approved legislation for the recovery and identification of children buried at the site to take place.
The process will be one of the most extensive DNA and recovery exhumations ever completed internationally and a related identification programme, to gather family members who can provide DNA which can be compared with remains recovered from the site, will commence this year.
'I can now let go'
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Local historian Catherine Corless [pictured above] whose work suggested that 796 babies could have been buried at the site, said she welcomed the news, saying that she feels that she can let go now that the children are to be reunited with their families.
"I feel like I can now let go. I was expecting excuses again, like we had gotten used to over the years ... that it can't be done yet and that the excavation was a complex issue. But the minister was quite clear when he said that these were distasteful burials, what happened in Tuam was wrong and that it had left a stain on the nation.
"I was very happy to hear those words because that's how I felt all along. How can people not share my horror? This was all we were asking, to take those babies out of the chambers of the sewage tank because that is what is there underneath us," she said, speaking to media at the site in Tuam.
She added that she welcomed the minister's announcement that he expected the Institutional Burials Bill for excavation, recovery and analysis of remains at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home to be passed by June.
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At this week's press conference, O’Gorman said he hopes work on the Tuam site could begin in late 2022 or early 2023. He stressed that the process of excavation and DNA identification, where possible, will be very complex.
When asked if the identification process could take years, the minister said “it will take as long as it takes to do it correctly” and give people information about their loved ones.
However, experts believe the process will take at least two years and that it may not commence for at least another 10 to 12 months.
If and when remains at Tuam are identified, relatives will be given the option to reinter the remains, Minister O’Gorman stated. Unidentified remains will also be reinterred at a location deemed appropriate by relatives, survivors and experts involved in the process, he added.
'A stain on our national conscience'
Speaking on the Bill, Minister O’Gorman [pictured below] said that what happened at Tuam is "a stain on our national conscience."
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"The Institutional Burials Bill will allow us, at long last, to afford the children interred at Tuam a dignified and respectful burial. I have listened carefully to families, survivors, and independent experts in order to strengthen and improve the legislation, and this is reflected in the Bill approved by Government.
“It is now five years since remains were confirmed at the site in Tuam, and I believe that the families affected have had to wait far too long for exhumation to commence. The legislation we are publishing today will allow us to move forward, in partnership with Tuam families, survivors and their advocates, and finally reunite them with their loved one’s remains.
“I am absolutely committed to now advancing the Bill as quickly as possible. If it is enacted, I intend to establish an Office of the Tuam Director and start the excavation later this year," he added.
The Bill will be formally published by the Oireachtas later this week and the Minister intends to begin second stage of this priority legislation in the Houses of the Oireachtas within the next two weeks.
