Eoin Ó Broin: Don’t Pave Over Bessborough - Government Must Act

Minister, the abuse and trauma suffered by women and children at Bespera Mother and Baby Home in Cork City is not a matter of history. That suffering is hardwired into the present day lives of survivors and indeed their families. It also echoes with the memory of those who never made it beyond those high walls and wrought iron gates. The decision to grant planning permission to a private developer to build apartments on the site of the home was appalling, utterly disgraceful. Understandably it was met with real anger, disgust and hurt by survivors, families and indeed the public at large. Not least because 829 children who died in Bespera are unaccounted for to this very day. We still do not know where they are buried or what happened to them. And there has been no proper investigation of the land. It goes against basic decency and compassion to pave over the Bespera site for any reason, especially when those questions remain unanswered. Campaign groups have made it very clear that they will fight against this decision tooth and nail. It was no surprise when appeals were lodged by survivors to stop this development going ahead and in that time they have repeatedly called on your government to buy the Bespera site to ensure a proper excavation and investigation of the land and crucially to preserve Bespera as a site of national conscience. Last week the Taoiseach told us all that the government would await on Commissioner Planola's decision on the appeals. Well Minister, that day has arrived. Today having already wrongly refused in our view demands for an oral hearing on Commissioner Planola has now decided to allow the development to proceed almost in its entirety. And so as we stand here right now Minister, Bespera is to be turned into a construction site paved over for this development. It is a shameful decision and the government should simply never have allowed it to get to this point. This is a site whose very soil holds so many secrets, so much trauma and which is potentially the final resting place for hundreds of children. You now have on Commissioner Planola a decision Minister, so the question is what is the government going to do? Will you stand back and allow the site which possibly holds the remains of these children to be destroyed? Will you try to remove survivors when as they have said they will do, chain themselves to the gates in protest? Or will you finally listen to them, hear their calls for respect, for justice and for truth by the Bespera site and stop this outrage from happening? The children and the women of Bespera deserved more in life and they were failed, abused in the most horrific fashion. The very least the government should do now is to protect what is possibly the final resting place for so many. To protect the site so that survivors can get the answers, the truth and the justice that they desperately need and deserve. To give these children and women the dignity and death that was stolen for them in life. Those who suffered so much at Bespera mattered Minister. The women mattered, the children mattered, those who died mattered and the survivors continue to matter. So Minister, will you show those survivors and their families that they matter to your government? And will you today give them a clear commitment that government will buy the site, facilitate proper investigation of the land and preserve Bespera as a site of national conscience? Thank you, Last Count Corail and I thank Deputy O'Briain for raising this very important matter and first of all to say that I cannot imagine the trauma that so many families are going through right now as a result of the conclusion of a board panel into this particular file. I know and we all know and have experienced that this is a very dark time in our past. We have had so many families that have been affected through institutions in our state at a time when the state turned a blind eye to very vulnerable families, those who needed support at key junctures and crisis in their lives. First of all I would say is that the government can now engage with survivors, can engage with people in the vicinity that were directly affected by this decision. Obviously we have a huge body of work to do that and we have to do that respectfully, dignifiedly. When the decision was in its genesis in terms of the Commission and the Planning Authority, we know those are independent processes and they had to run their course and obviously the Commission came forward with its determination this morning which was announced. I know this is a 60 acre site essentially on a wider 200 acre where the estate was originally and absolutely you have raised a number of items Deputy and obviously as a Government Minister I can't respond with exact precision on what the state will do in terms of a CPO that you propose, in terms of collectively a monument for the future. But while I say it should be victim-centred and I really believe this that those who have been affected by that trauma, those families who still carry this grief to this very day need to be front and centre in the determination of the future of that site. I believe that from so many families I've spoken to and experienced over my lifetime in many different parts of our country that have experienced this very significant trauma which has been horrific and as they live currently with the scars of it consistently. I know the Government has done a number of items trying to respond to the challenge of the past that neglect by the state of the past and we have set out in our action plan for survivors and former residents of mother and baby home institutions a number of actions on foot of that and I know on November 2022 that the then Minister for Housing wrote to the local authorities including Cork City Council at that juncture requesting adequate consideration be brought to bear on processes in development where consideration is given to very sensitive sites such as this and that is key here at a time when people are vulnerable, people are being reminded and consistently enduring the scars of the past need to be brought to bear and brought to very forefront and Government needs to give them a compassionate hand, work with them to try and get agreement for the future of this site. Now withstanding there's two independent processes that have taken place but I would now hope the Government would engage proactively with the victims and just finally to say my heart as a father of two young children, as a husband is absolutely with victims and survivors who have been turned their back on at a very hard time and a dark time in our state but now we are in a different place, we are in a more compassionate Government, we are an understanding Government, we're a Government that wants to hold the hand of friendship to try and rectify the scars of the past. Minister, I welcome the fact that you accept that the survivors and their families need compassion but what they also need more urgently is a decision from Government. They have waited long enough and have fought far far too hard to get to where they are and their ask is very very clear, there is no ambiguity in terms of what they want, they do not want this building to go ahead, they want the state to acquire the site, they want a proper investigation and excavation of the land and crucially they want to preserve the site as a site of national conscience. So can I ask you, when will the Taoiseach and Taoiseach in Government meet the survivors to discuss these issues? When are you going to make a decision and can you at least say today that it is the Government's view that this development should not proceed and that the interests of the survivors, their families and those whose bodies may indeed lie in this land should be put before any development, any developer or any prophet. When will you meet, when will you decide and should the building now not proceed? I think Deputy this is a time to listen, it's a time to listen to the victims, it's a time to understand their trauma, to give them the hand of friendship that we will work with them for the future of this site. I don't want to say anything or talk about independent reports or authorities that will exacerbate their trauma because this is a day we have to work with victims and survivors and I absolutely believe the Government will compassionately engage with survivors in the area. I haven't spoken with the Taoiseach or the Taoiseach subsequent to the issuing of the decision by Commissioner McLennaugh and obviously that work will commence across Government but Government has been very much aware of this, you know Government is aware of the processes that was ongoing and obviously it's very difficult to engage when a legal process by independent institutions is being determined upon but now we have that opportunity and absolutely we will engage proactively with victims and survivors and I say that most genuinely as someone who really understands the trauma that many families have experienced at the hands of the institutions of this state going back decades. Thank you Minister. Deputy Jed Nash. Thank you.