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The Taoiseach has been called upon to intervene directly to halt a development at the Bessborough mother and baby home site in Cork.
Activists have expressed outrage at plans to build 246 apartments on land they believe overlaps a children’s cemetery linked to a former home for mothers and babies.
Micheál Martin told Dáil that the request is “near, if not at, the burial site itself”, which he said is “unacceptable”. However, he added that he cannot intervene with a planning authority.
Social Democrat TD Holly Cairns told the Dáil that plans have been laid out for a strategic development of housing and apartment blocks for an area that has been documented as a children’s cemetery, which she said “cannot move forward.”
“More than 900 children died while in the care of nuns in Bessborough and the burial place of more than 800 of those children is still unknown,” said Ms Cairns.
“The state has a history of facilitating the worst types of abuse and a very recent history of unnecessarily aggravating the suffering caused by that abuse.”
Sinn Féin’s Pat Buckley said survivors and supporters are very concerned and have asked An Bord Pleanála to postpone the request.
The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, which represents more than 50 families of children who died in the former institution for mothers and babies in Cork City, has already asked the developers, MWB Two Ltd, to withdraw their applications for a site. close to home until The final report of the Home for Mothers and Babies Investigation Commission is published
Buckley said doing this would provide justice to both developers and survivors.
Mr. Martin agreed that “we cannot build on a cemetery.”
“Initially, the survivors were eager for it to be preserved as a burial site, which for me was a reasonable position to present,” Martin said.
But the Taoiseach added: “I cannot intervene with a planning authority. I have made my views known, but I am not An Bord Pleanála. A Bord Pleanála will perform his duties with respect to the planning act.”
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