I thank the Government Chief Whip for facilitating time for this debate at my request. I was struck by something my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, said earlier in relation to the tendency of the State to treat issues of institutional abuse as piecemeal and individual. If we look at industrial schools, Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes, the fact of the matter is this was incarceration funded by the State and facilitated by a corrupt institution, the Roman Catholic Church. I was struck by some aspects of the Minister’s speech in relation to there being no information about burial arrangements. While the Minister stated that there are a number of locations in the grounds where burial could have taken place, no evidence of burial was found anywhere except the congregation burial ground. That brings me back to an experience in my own family. My grand aunt was in a mother and baby home in the 1950s. Her child was taken from her and sent to Australia. We only found this out approximately ten or 12 years ago. She could not make contact with her biological daughter for decades afterwards. There was no paperwork surrounding her daughter’s birth or registration of birth; it was extremely difficult to obtain. I note the previous application was for a SHD but this was ruled by An Bord Pleanála as being unsuitable. The fact of the matter is that the Bessborough site requires a national intervention to prevent development. The State has obligations under the ECHR to investigate this and it should be responsible for surveying and protecting the site itself. It should not be something that is left to any private entity. Some of the rhetoric coming from Government in relation to this is markedly different and departs from what the official policy position is. The Taoiseach said Cork City Council should have purchased it, the Tánaiste said he was deeply uncomfortable with the situation, and the Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, said the solution was not to CPO the site. The State needs to step in here. This should be a site of conscience and national commemoration. The way survivors have been treated here, as survivors are consistently treated by the official mechanisms of the State, is absolutely appalling. The fact of the matter is that only two people, Carmel Cantwell and my colleague, Councillor Peter Horgan, bothered to lodge a formal objection to this. The Minister for housing has powers under section 28 and can issue ministerial guidelines.

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