I want to take up where we left off yesterday. When explaining why the Government was not going to buy Bessborough the Taoiseach said: Excavation without evidence of location is neither feasible nor lawful [because] Under the Institutional Burials Act 2022, the Government can only [start an excavation] where it is satisfied that burials have taken place and there is evidence that those burials are manifestly inappropriate. He then said, "I am advised that the legal threshold cannot currently be met because the location of many burials remains unknown." I cannot have been the only person listening who was stunned. The Government knows that 859 children and 19 women who were incarcerated at Bessborough are missing, presumed dead. It knows the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes said it was highly likely that burials had taken place on this land. It has all the evidence of abuse, suspicious deaths, disappeared women and children and likely burial, and the Taoiseach is telling us he is powerless to act because legislation his previous Government drafted and enacted is preventing him. This really is beneath contempt. I repeat again what he said yesterday. The Government needs evidence that burials were "manifestly inappropriate" before it can intervene. Is he actually trying to say that these burials were in any way manifestly appropriate, and discarding the remains of hundreds of children without a scrap of paper recording the burial location is appropriate? He now seems to be using that as an excuse for inaction, when what he should be doing is moving heaven and earth to find these children and 19 women who disappeared. Two weeks ago, the Taoiseach told me that Cork City Council should have placed a compulsory purchase order on the land. Councillors on Cork City Council have now twice voted unanimously to CPO the land, mostly recently on Monday of this week. The councillors have been told that they cannot do that because the council does not have capital. The Taoiseach holds the purse strings. Quite frequently when I ask him an important question he comes back and speaks about how I do not have a monopoly on caring, about his bona fides and about how much he cares. Respectfully, it does not matter how much the Taoiseach cares unless that is mirrored some way in his actions.
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Can he please refrain from doing that in his reply today and focus on answering the questions? He is the Taoiseach of this country.
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If he cared about this issue he would act. He could amend the burials Act. He could open the archives. He could negotiate with the developer. He could give money to Cork City Council to secure the land.
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Will the Taoiseach do that? His hands are not tied; he is sitting on them. There is a difference.
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At the end of the day, there are a few things that we know and a few things that we do not know. We know the commission of investigation found that it is highly likely there are babies buried on the grounds. We do not know why it made that recommendation. Why? Because the archives are sealed. The Taoiseach took exception to that word yesterday. They are closed. He can call it whatever he wants. That is why we do not know why the commission made that recommendation. We know that archaeologists walked the site. We do not know what they said or recommended because the archive is sealed. We know that there was no ground-penetrating radar used. As far as we know, there were no soil samples and no test excavations. We do not know why. We know that we have this information for Tuam and for Sean Ross Abbey. We do not have it for Bessborough. We do not know why. The Taoiseach's whole argument amounts to "We simply don't have enough information to meet the threshold for excavation and examination." Why do we not? It is by design.
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It is very clearly by design that we do not have this information. I take it from the Taoiseach's reply that his answer to my questions was "No", so I will ask him this: will he simply release the archaeological report?
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Not by me.
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I put forward amendments at every Stage.
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The Taoiseach can check the record.
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It is the apartments-----
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