Government to 'await outcome of the planning appeal' on Bessborough and then decide how to respond

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said if planning permission for 140 apartments was granted next week, the Government 'has a big decision to make — do its State apologies mean anything or are they just performance?'

The gates of the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, Blackrock, Cork, covered with teddy bears during a vigil in which saw scores of people gather to protest Cork City Council’s approval of 140 apartments despite concerns over the burial places of 923 children. Picture: Chani Anderson

The Government will decide how to respond to plans for 140 apartments on the former Bessborough mother and baby home site after a planning appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála is decided next week, the Taoiseach has said.

In February, Cork City Council granted permission for the apartments. That was appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála, with a decision due by July 9.

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran Bessborough as a mother and baby institution between 1922 and 1998.

In 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported 923 child deaths relating to the institution.

In the Dáil, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns raised the case of Carmel Cantwell, whose brother William died in there. At a vigil on Sunday, Carmel said: "The land itself holds the truth. These buildings, these fields hold stories and secrets and the remains of our family members."

Ms Cairns said this truth "now lies buried" and if planning permission was granted next week, the Government "has a big decision to make — do its State apologies mean anything or are they just performance?".

Up until this point, every time I have raised it with the Taoiseach, the current minister and the former minister, they have all said the same thing, which is that an investigation of the site would be too big and too expensive. 

"For one, is anything too big when we are talking about the gravity of 859 disappeared babies? Leaving this aside for the moment, no one is asking the Government to go in tomorrow and excavate the entire site at Bessborough. 

"Before this, there would need to be geophysical surveys, test excavations and soil samples. The commission of investigation did not do any of this. It did not properly investigate the site."

Ms Cairns added the "first thing the Government has to do is CPO land" and buy it itself as was unanimously agreed by Cork City Council and is the number one ask of survivors.

In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said "the pain felt by survivors and families connected to Bessborough is profound".

"It is enduring. Neither I nor the Government have ever minimised that reality."

Mr Martin said Bessborough was a "large site of approximately 60 acres at the moment". He said it had been previously over 200 acres, "so it has already been partially developed over the decades".

"In my view, the local authority should have purchased the site compulsorily a number of years ago. It chose not to. Governments, by definition, do not just go in and purchase sites compulsorily."

Mr Martin said the Government would "await the outcome of the planning appeal to An Coimisiún Pleanála next week, and then we will determine how to respond".