Institutional Burials Bill 2022: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2022-06-28
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Lynn Boylan (SF), Agricultural Panel

I move amendment No. 21:
In page 16, line 13, to delete “, at the time of such burial,”.
The rationale for deleting "at the time of such burial" is that there is no principled reason to specify that contemporary burial practice from the 1940s, 1950s and-or earlier or later should apply to any potential burial lands. Public awareness and perception of common decency and dignified burial have evolved and matured over the years and these burials should be viewed as in compliance with the burial requirements we have now. It was common practice that babies were buried with others who were not known to them. This, of course, would not be acceptable now. My own brother was buried in the angels plot in Glasnevin with a child who died in childbirth and without baptism. I do not think we would tolerate that as a society today. That is the rationale for that amendment.
Amendment No. 23 is as above whereby any consideration of burial grounds and their contents should be considered to be in compliance with contemporary practice. Moving with the times, we can look back at how we treated babies in the past but we would not tolerate it today.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2022-06-28/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-06-28