Delay to excavation at Tuam mother and baby homes site 'an insult'
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A woman whose sister is believed to be buried in a mass grave in Tuam has hit out at the government’s progress report for survivors of the mother and baby homes, describing it as a “travelling circus”.
Yesterday, the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman published a five-point update on the Annual Action Plan for the institutions.
The report states that the Information and Tracing Bill is now “fully operational”, while the redress scheme for survivors is making its way through the Oireachtas.
Government approvals for proposals for a National Centre for Research and Remembrance as well as a Special Advocate to represents survivors' experiences were also secured, it said.
However, there was no clear deadline for work to begin on the long-awaited excavation of the Tuam site, other than work was “underway to recruit the independent Director” for the project.
Speaking last night, Annette McKay, whose sister Mary Margaret O’Connor died in the Tuam mother and baby home, said there was nothing in the update that she had not heard before.
She told the : “It’s an insult. On March 3, 2017, I was in New York, when suddenly the world press was ringing me, saying human remains were found in Tuam. I thought it would be all systems go, but here we are, six years later, still waiting to find my sister.
“This is just another waste of time exercise. Since 2017, we have had a Commission of Inquiry into mother and baby homes that blamed society for all the human rights breaches that took place.
“We have had a forum, a garda investigation, and a recruitment advert for the excavation. But this was all talked about before and we are nowhere near an excavation. Nothing good came out of all of these processes that have cost the state millions and what have we achieved?
“Do you honestly expect me to believe the Tuam site that was supposed to be excavated this year, will actually happen this year? We are now going into March and recruitment is underway for a director. A team has yet to be assembled, stakeholders have to be involved, local people and an ethics committee have to be updated, and the families of these children have to be involved first and foremost, and this is going to be done this year?
“It’s a mop-up operation. It is an insult. I don’t even finish reading the emails from the minister anymore.”
Annette’s sister, Mary Margaret O’Connor, died in the controversial Tuam institutions at seven weeks after suffering from whooping cough in 1943.
Her late mother, Maggie O’Connor, passed away in 2016, after suffering years of torment over the unanswered questions around the death of her firstborn who was conceived as a result of rape.
“I don’t know how much more the Tuam Babies Family Group can be involved — we have attended meetings, zoom calls, we have met the Minister, the gardaí, and ministers before Roderic O’Gorman, but the bottom line is my sister is still missing along with hundreds of other babies.”