Call for 'precautionary approach' to burial site development amid Bessborough apartment plans

Roderic O'Gorman said any developments on the site of the former mother and baby institution should 'give adequate consideration to the views of survivors and families' members and their request for appropriate access and respectful memorialisation'

Roderic O’Gorman made an observation to an appeal by MWB Two of Cork City Council’s decision to refuse planning for a 92-unit scheme on the Bessborough site.

Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman has written to An Bord Pleanála highlighting a “precautionary approach” to developing potential burial sites, amid proposals for a €40m apartment scheme on the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork.

Mr O’Gorman raised the issue in his observation to an appeal lodged last February by MWB Two Ltd of Cork City Council’s decision to refuse planning for a 92-unit scheme.

Mr O’Gorman said the investigation of burial arrangements in mother and baby homes was an essential part of the work of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, and that despite extensive inquiries and searches, the commission was only able to identify the burial places of 64 of the children who died while resident in Bessborough.

It concluded that it is likely that some of the children who died at Bessborough are buried in the grounds but was unable to find any physical or documentary evidence of this.

He pointed out to the board that the Government’s response to the legacy of mother and baby homes is set out in an action plan, which includes a commitment to advise all planning authorities of the precautionary approach to be taken in county and city development plans to the "proper safeguarding of burial sites from potentially harmful development".

On foot of that commitment, he said a circular was issued to all city and county councils last November requesting that the development plan processes “give adequate consideration to incorporating appropriate measures to ensure the protection and preservation of locations where there may be evidence of unrecorded burial sites associated with an institution”.

Roderic O'Gorman said there is a commitment to advise planning authorities of the precautionary approach to be taken to the 'proper safeguarding of burial sites from potentially harmful development'. Picture: PA

That circular also noted that local authorities could attach conditions to grants of planning for potential development.

“In addition to bringing this circular to your attention, I would also reiterate my previous view that any developments on the site of the former mother and baby institution should have due regard to the commission’s report and give adequate consideration to the views of survivors and families' members and their request for appropriate access and respectful memorialisation in due course,” the minister said.

MWB Two was previously refused planning in 2021 for a slightly larger residential apartment scheme on a nearby site following a Bord Pleanála oral hearing.

In refusing planning for this latest proposal, the council said that given its height, scale, design, and relationship to the historic landscape in which it sits, it would result in isolated residential blocks in a protected landscape within the curtilage of a protected structure and would comprise haphazard development which would detract from the character of a designated area of high landscape value.

MWB Two later expressed surprise at the decision, given the nature of pre-planning talks last year.

It its appeal of the decision to the board, MWB said it made several substantial design changes following pre-planning talks last summer, and it has insisted that the site can be developed “sensitively and successfully”.

It has also pointed out that it has adapted “a robust approach” to the consideration of the findings of the commission and the complex legacy issues, which are not part of the reason for the council's planning refusal.

An Bord Pleanála is still considering two SHD applications by another developer elsewhere on the Bessborough lands.