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JUNIOR MINISTER JOHN Halligan has called on the gardaí to question the surviving Bon Secour nuns who worked in the Tuam mother and baby home.
“Age should not diminish responsibility,” said the Independent Alliance TD.
Last Friday, amateur historian Catherine Corless was vindicated by the commission’s confirmation that a significant number of children’s bodies were found at the Tuam site in a structure which appears to be “related to the treatment/containment of sewerage and/or wastewater”.
In 2014, when the revelations first hit the headlines, a statement from high-profile Irish PR representative Terry Prone, on behalf of the Bon Secours order, said the “overwhelming majority of the surviving Sisters of Bon Secours in Ireland are over eighty. The handful (literally) still in active ministry are in their seventies”.
The statement goes on to say there is “no mass grave” and “no evidence that children were ever so buried”.
Held accountable
Halligan said the gardaí need to establish if a criminal investigation is warranted. If an individual has been an accessory to a crime then they should be held accountable, regardless of how many years have passed or their advancing age, he added.
He said the surviving Bon Secours nuns should also be interviewed by the Mother and Babies Homes Commission on their knowledge of the post-mortem practices and procedures, reporting and burial arrangements for residents of the Tuam home.
“I will not accept that they cannot shed some light on this disrespectful discarding of innocent children’s remains,” said the Waterford TD.
The minister for skills and training said he also believes a criminal investigation needs to take place on the basis that children were neglected in the home.
We have a duty to investigate, to set an example that such horrors will never again be tolerated in this country.
Criminal Assets Bureau
Halligan also called for the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) to get involved in the case, stating that if the order is found guilty of criminal neglect, its assets should be seized.
Speaking about other mother and baby homes around the country, Halligan said stories are emerging from these homes that are “no less gruesome than those at Tuam”.
“Each of these homes needs to be investigated and the Catholic Church – which has to date been allowed to evade its responsibilities under the abuse redress scheme – should be held fully responsible.
“The State enabled the Catholic Church during those horrendous years and the indifference of the nation to – at the very least – this great moral crime against such a vulnerable section of our society, is something we all have to live with. But we do not have to continue to turn a blind eye.”
Addressing the Dáil yesterday, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone offered a personal apology to those that have been affected by the recent discoveries.
This House and our entire State owe a debt of gratitude to Catherine Corless for her work. Many men and women alive today spent time in that institution, either as children or as young women. Today I offer them my personal solidarity and, as a citizen, my personal apology for the wrongs that were done to them.
Zappone acknowledge the calls for the commission’s terms of reference to be expanded to include other mother and baby homes.
She said a scoping exercise will be carried out to examine if this is possible. The detail of this exercise will be released in the coming weeks. The second interim report from the Mother and Baby Commission will be published by the end of this month.
A spokesperson for the Bon Secours order told TheJournal.ie that due to the ongoing work of the commission it is precluded from making any further comment on the issue.
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Always questions questions questions, but never any answers!
@Colette Kearns: It’s a hospital, the chances of a virus being there is quite high. I think that answers the question
They’re bacteria?
@Timmy:
Eh, no, hospitals being places where bacteria are likely to be found does not answer why they cut the cleaning budget.
@Timmy: TIMMY!
@Timmy: I also think it answers the question, albeit in a superficial and practically inept fashion. The idea in the hospital is to not endanger the patients (or staff) any further. That specifically includes maintaining the highest of hygiene standards, the hospital failed to do that and cutting the cleaning regime was obviously a factor in that.
@Jon Snow: Livin’ a lie, TIMMY!
Of all the things to be cut in a hospital, hygiene!!! I’m not a doctor, but is cleanliness not vitally important in a hospital of all places??
Never happened when the nuns were in charge, the hospitals were always spick and span.
Cutting costs on cleaning and putting people’s lives in danger. Like why not just reduce the boards massive wage bill instead.
@Darren Cooney: you will probably find the Board are all unpaid volunteers.
Lowest bid cleaning contractors???? Hospitals need qualified in-house cleaning staff 24.7
The answer lies in the fact that there’s an antibiotic culture in this country.
@Darren Bates: No… it doesn’t. In the case of these superbugs it’s more to do with an antibiotic problem… in India.
“Questions need to be asked”
The favourite go to line of many a politician, knowing only too well it’ll all be forgotten and buried in a few days/weeks.
Ridiculous to cut the budget. But very misleading article- cleaning or lack there of does not contribute to carbarpenem resistance, the use of that antibiotic does.
The day of drug resistant staph and enterococcus is fast approaching.
@George Beckett: to be infected by the bacterium requires the bacterium to be presence.
The probability of the presence of the bacterium is increased by reduction in cleaning.
Prevention of infection is better than cure, especially in the case of antibiotuc resistance fir the bacterium.
@George Beckett: Eh… the day is here? It’s called MRSA and CRE or VRE. Nobody is disputing how resistance evoloution happens they’re disputing that proper measures aren’t taken to try and prevent the acquisition of these bugs.
@George Beckett:
Yes but it can be controlled by correct aseptic methodology which include cleaning regimes which is lacking in this case
No accountability,no consequences.
“Penny wise, Pound foolish” the mantra of government.
“Penny wise, Pound foolish” the mantra of government.
It’s been widely reported in the past that this hospital has had issues with bullying and it’s ‘management style’, particularly in it’s Emergency Department, resulting in consultants there becoming whistleblowers. I’ve heard whispers that little has changed, the hospital management hire highly qualified staff to help enact changes. But these are consequently bullied and unable to do their job – a job which had been earmarked for another member of staff belonging to a clique within the hospital. Unwilling to admit they have a problem with bullying, the management then become a reluctant party to it.
The lunatics are running this particular asylum, and have been for quite some time, so it should be no surprise when some questionable decisions are made, but just how much latitude are they going to be given before an adult steps in and takes control is the real question. This isn’t the first time patients lives have been put in danger, or even lost in Tallaght Hospital, particularly in it’s Emergency Department, the issues aren’t being resolved and appear to be getting worse.
It would help tallaght hospital if they got half decent cleaners to clean wards/toilets/main hospital areas. Place is filthy
Why not get prisoners to clean then hospitals at 4am. Problem solved.
Get the nuns in with the Dosco brushes n Dettol
Who I mean who, decided a hospital (any hospital) only needed to be cleaned 6 out of 7 days?
Find the person and let him go….
have your say