Institutional Burials (Amendment) Bill 2022: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I commend and thank Senators Ruane, Higgins, Flynn and Black on bringing forward this Bill today. The Labour Party fully supports this important legislation. When the Institutional Burials Act 2022 passed through the Oireachtas four years ago it was a victory for the tireless campaigners, survivors and families of Tuam and other mother and baby homes. The work of people like Catherine Corless, who has rightly been mentioned here many times tonight, uncovered the facts of the burials at Tuam. The Act was a vindication of years of work and a step towards justice. However, it was not perfect. Many of those same campaigners in the years since then have pointed out significant issues with the legislation that was passed four years ago. The simple aim of this Bill is to make real the promise of justice for survivors and family members of people who died in and are buried in institutional lands. This is why we fully support it. All of us in the House can agree that this is a worthy aim. The 2022 Act sets a high legal threshold for intervention. In practice this means it is extremely difficult to authorise State-led interventions on institutional burial sites other than Tuam. The Minister explained her reason for erasing another amendment. Perhaps as a result of how effective the campaigning of those in Tuam was, the 2022 Act was very much drafted with Tuam at the forefront of their minds. Several of the criteria for intervention included in the 2022 Act are referential to the context of Tuam. The effect of this is that other known or suspected institutional burial sites cannot meet those criteria. Therefore, justice and closure are being denied to survivors and family members from other sites. I do not believe this was the intention of the 2022 Act. It is certainly not in line with the spirit that underpinned that legislation. This Bill seeks to put that right. It would expand and strengthen the powers granted to the State under the 2022 Act. It would bring other institutional lands into scope for investigation and intervention if inappropriate burials are likely to have occurred there. The core aim here is to make sure the State can intervene appropriately in cases of suspected inappropriate or undocumented burials linked to religious institutions. We already accepted this concept in the 2022 Act. In passing that Act, the Oireachtas accepted the State's role in responding to the legacy issues by intervening in inappropriate burials. While the Bill was in effect largely limited to dealing with the Tuam site, I do not believe a case of justice and closure in Tuam but nowhere else would ever have been acceptable to campaigners, families or indeed legislators. In taking action on this issue and passing the Bill, the intention of this House was that justice would be open to all. This Bill is about making that intention real. That is why I am deeply disappointed to see the Government's amendment today. This should not be a partisan issue. Discretion is very much evident within the Bill. It should be an issue on which all in this House can agree. The Government claims this would lead to speculative interventions. It claims it would create a lack of clarity, would be out of proportion and would not be in the public interest. However, the Government is failing to recognise that the situation now is leading to a lack of clarity and is not proportionate. The situation as it exists now is simply not in the public interest. The Government seems to be suggesting that by broadening the scope of the 2022 Act, we would open the floodgates to a large number of poorly evidenced interventions. I do not think it is fair that there is such little faith in families and campaigners who have had to fight for so many years to finally get this far. I do not believe the suggestion that allowing for interventions where inappropriate burials are likely to have taken place will lead to a disproportionately large number of actions is true. I think it is insulting. It was only through the sterling investigative work of Catherine Corless that the burials of Tuam ever came to light. Governments, over successive decades, were none the wiser. Now the Government presumes to tell campaigners and families that they cannot be trusted to know where similar events are likely to have taken place. It is a deeply disappointing amendment and a deeply disappointing stance for the Government to take. As I said, the Labour Party fully supports the Senators in the Civil Engagement Group and of course the tireless campaigners who have kept the spotlight on this issue. I know the Minister is open to discussions. I hope she will reassess her position and back this Bill so that real closure can happen for families. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-25