Campaigners to raise significant concerns over exhumations at mother and baby home sites

Memorial tributes of toys and flowers at the 'Little Angels' memorial plot near the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork. Campaigners will today tell an Oireachtas committee of their concerns over a proposed law concerning the excavation and exhumation of such sites. Picture: Laura Hutton

New laws to allow for the exhumation of remains on mother and baby home sites pose significant problems from both a human rights and transitional justice perspective, it has been claimed.

It is believed that up to 800 babies are buried in a mass grave on the site of the Tuam mother and baby home. The draft legislation would allow for the excavation, exhumation, and reinterment of these remains as well as at other potential sites such as Bessborough in Cork.