Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has welcomed confirmation that a test excavation is due to begin in the grounds of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.
Specialist archaeologists hired by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation are due to begin work this weekend, weather permitting, at the memorial garden located on the Dublin Road housing estate in Tuam.
Ms Zappone paid tribute to a group of survivors from the former home when she met them in Tuam today along with local historian Catherine Corless, who documented the deaths of 796 toddlers and babies.
She said the survivors had explained to her how important the work of the commission was in “bearing witness” to their experience.
Ms Zappone said the decision on a test excavation was taken by the commission, which she met in recent days, and she understood the work would be led by a forensic archaeologist and last five weeks.
Test trenches
The commission said a “sample of the site”will be excavated, and work will take place in co-operation with the Garda. A fraction of the site would be excavated through test trenches which had been informed by a geophysical survey of the site conducted in October 2015, it said.
It said the purpose was to “ resolve a number of queries that the Mother and Baby Homes Commission has in relation to the interment of human remains at this location”, and it would focus on “timeline and stratigraphy”.
Ms Corless welcomed the development, and said it was very important for the many hundreds of people who had contacted her about her research, most of whom believed they had siblings buried in the area.
“It is wonderful when people have been able to trace their family, as has happened in some cases,” Ms Corless said.
Interim report
Ms Zappone said she expected the commission reports, which could be very extensive, would be on target for February 2018. An interim report is currently with the Attorney-General.
The commission is charged with investigating 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes.
Ms Zappone, who was also at NUI Galway (NUIG) to mark a new degree course and publication of new research on neighbourhoods in Dublin, Limerick and Galway, said the childcare package in the coming Budget would be "simplified" and "graded".
“In doing that we also have the opportunity to be smarter about the way we subsidise according to the net income of a household,” she said.
