Concerns of former residents of Tuam mother and baby home outlined to Oireachtas committee

Proposed legislation addressing concerns of survivors of the Tuam mother and baby home has been discussed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs.

The General Scheme of a Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill is under pre-legislative scrutiny.

Amanda Larkin, a member the collaborative forum of former residents, told the committee her mother is a survivor of the Tuam home.

Amanda stated: “She was born there in 1949 and spent five and a half years of her life there until she was boarded out.

“My grandmother was coerced into the Tuam mother and baby home. She was, therefore, imprisoned in the home and she was trafficked to the psychiatric unit in Castlebar where she reportedly spent 12 years of her life before she passed away and was buried in a mass grave in Castlebar.

“A stone was only put up at the mass grave approximately ten years ago by the heritage committee in Castlebar.

“One of the main concerns of the group I represent, and with which I work, would be to have a larger database for potential siblings and close family members whose loved ones were in the Tuam home in order that there is a guarantee that those babies are returned to their relatives and that no body is left unidentified or left outstanding at the end of this.”

In a separate contribution to the Oireachtas committee, Ms. Larkin said the government has come down “and got public opinion on what we wanted done in Tuam.”

She continued: “It is a crime scene; it is not down to public opinion. The law does not go with public opinion. The law is the law.

“The tombs were broken back in the 1970s by children and that is when the coroner and the Garda Síochána should have gone in and investigated Tuam. That is when the babies were let down for the second time.

“They were let down when they were let die and when they were lowered into a septic tank. Back in the 1970s, they were let down by the State, the coroner and the Garda Síochána that came with the church and covered it up in Tuam, and blessed the grounds.”

She said the taxpayers of Ireland paid for an expert team, in 2017, to do a dig and its recommendations have not been acted on.

“It recommended that a liaison team should be set up to deal directly with the families so that the families hear first what is happening and not through social media.

“The expert team recommended that the site should be excavated within six months. They said that because air and gases got in when they opened the tanks they have no idea what effect that would have on the remains.

“We are losing vital DNA and remains plus we have no idea what will have happened to the bones in that time.

“If extremely simple legislation is required to get the babies out of Tuam then let us do so. Every day that passes we are losing and it is another apology down the road that the government will have to give to living witnesses saying 'we're sorry that that happened and should have moved quicker'.

“Four years have elapsed since the experts went into Tuam. However, my mother has spent 72 years fighting to find out who she is.

“She has reached the conclusion that she will never know for certain the identity of her mother and will never have a picture of her mother.

“She now seeks justice for the little ones in the tank because she could have been one of them. She wants their bodies recovered and treated with justice and respect.”