Members of the public have until 4pm tomorrow (Friday ) to make submissions as part of the independent consultation process on the five possible options identified by the Expert Technical Group for responding to the discovery of infant remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home, Tuam.
Galway County Council at the request of the Department of Children & Youth Affairs is currently facilitating the process and to this end held a series of meetings with family members of former residents of the Home, as well as with local residents in Dublin and Tuam last week. These options have regard to internationally accepted best practice and will help to make more informed decisions about the future of the site.
The key objective of this consultation process is to offer those with an interest an opportunity to express their opinion on the five options identified by the Expert Technical Group and to collate this information. The submission template developed for this purpose does not represent a voting process. It has been developed based on the five possible options identified by the Expert Technical Group for the sole purpose of ensuring that there is clarity and certainty in relation to the preferred option of each respondent in order that this information can be recorded and made available to the Inter-Departmental Group, which has an oversight role for the project.
In addition to the opportunity to make a written submission on the five options, all parties were afforded the opportunity to attend independently facilitate consultation events. These events held in Dublin and Tuam were independently facilitated by Restorative Dialogue Facilitators, Catherine O’Connell of the Edward Kennedy Institute of Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University and Barbara Walsh, chair of the Board of the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.
Members of the Expert Technical Group were in attendance at each of the consultation events to present and address questions relating to their report on the five Options and Appropriate Courses of Action available at the site of the former Mother & Baby Home..
The report on the consultation events and submissions received will be prepared by the Restorative Dialogue Facilitators and will be a factual account of the consultation process. The report will not contain any recommendations. The report will be submitted directly to the Inter-Departmental Group and it will be matter for this Group to consider the report and recommend a course of action to the Government.
The closing date for receipt of submissions is 4pm on tomorrow Friday, March 16, 2018. Submissions can be made by email to [email protected]
While email may be ideal given the deadline that has been publicised, anything submitted in the post this week prior to Mar 16 will of course be accepted. The objective is to facilitate anyone wishing to engage and make submissions. Postal submissions can be made to Tuam Consultation, C/O Galway County Council, Áras an Chontae, Prospect Hill, Galway, H91 H6KX, Ireland. Queries can be made to + 353 (0 )91 509561
Galway County Council are continuing to respond to calls and emails this week and can send out paper copies of the Expert Technical Group Report and the guidance template for submissions.
All of this information is also on their website - including the full copies of the reports – this can be found on www.galway.ie under the news section. Or this link http://www.galway.ie/en/news/name,30904,en.html
