Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-18
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Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Cheann Comhairle. In 1940 Ireland's infant mortality rate was 6.5%. In the Bessborough mother and baby home, it was 61%. In 1943 a Department inspector, Alice Litster, said: "The greater number[s] ... were miserable scraps of humanity, wizened, some emaciated and almost all had rash and sores all over their bodies, faces, hands and heads." Many of those children died of starvation. The State was fully aware but the institution remained open and women and children continued to be incarcerated and abused there.
Between 1922 when it opened and 1998 when it finally closed 923 children died in Bessborough but burial records exist for just 64. It seems no one even cared enough to record where they were buried. The nuns who ran Bessborough did keep meticulous records about one thing: baptisms. A few years ago when it was suggested some of the children had not been baptised, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was quick to correct the record. They wanted to " ... state categorically that all children born in Bessborough were baptised within the rites of the Catholic Church and canon law." However, when it comes to the burial records of babies who died there, they apparently have no idea where they are. They disappeared without a trace as if they never existed.
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was "perplexed and concerned at the inability of ... the Congregation ... to identify the burial ... [places]." and concluded it was "... highly likely that the burials did take place in the grounds ...". Twenty-eight years since the Bessborough mother and baby home closed we still do not know where they are because the State has not bothered to look.
Unbelievably, planning permission has now been granted to build an apartment complex on the grounds of Bessborough. Can the Minister imagine how empty the apology to mother and baby home survivors must feel when five years later planning permission has somehow been granted to build apartments on a mass grave? I do not think the Minister needs me to tell him that ordinarily if there were any number of children buried somewhere there would be a criminal investigation. There would never be a question of just concreting over it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:45+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-18