THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS to appoint the Director who will lead the intervention at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam is due to conclude next month.
Applications for the role opened in late November and closed on 15 December.
The exact timeline has been unclear but The Journal has now learned that the process is due to conclude in February, paving the way for work to finally begin at the site in the coming months.
A spokesperson for the Department of Children confirmed that the recruitment process is ongoing and “expected to conclude next month”.
“Once a Director is appointed, it is anticipated that they will start work at the site as soon as possible.
“A range of experts will need to be engaged and preparatory works will be needed in advance of excavation of the site. It is expected that this work can get underway early this year,” the spokesperson added.
Survivors and relatives have cautiously welcomed the news, but stressed there can be no further delays.
Anna Corrigan, whose brothers William and John might be buried at the Tuam site, said she hopes the excavation will indeed begin soon.
Let’s wait and see. We have waited almost nine years at this stage since the story came to public attention and almost six years on since the first excavation took place – so my faith in justice in Ireland has been severely damaged and has been replaced by cynicism and scepticism.
Anna, whose story featured in the Redacted Lives podcast, said she and others just want the truth to finally come out.
“All I hope is that the babies in Tuam and all the others who have been crying out for so long will eventually be heard, and hopefully we at the Tuam Babies Family Group will learn the fate of our siblings before we too pass.”
Tireless research by local historian Catherine Corless uncovered the fact that around 800 babies and young children might be buried at the site in Tuam.
Her work eventually resulted in the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
Archaeologists who carried out a test excavation at the site in 2016 and 2017 previously said the measures put in place to protect the site and the remains were “not designed to last longer than six months”.
These temporary measures have now been in place for almost six years.
Legislation that will allow for the excavation of the site passed through the Oireachtas last year.
The Institutional Burials Bill means that remains at the site can be excavated, and DNA testing can be carried out in a bid to identify who was buried there. The remains will then be reinterred at a more appropriate site.
In a letter sent to survivors and relatives before Christmas, Children’s Minister O’Gorman said he was “hopeful” that a Director would be appointed soon and that “work will start on the intervention early in the new year”.
The minister also confirmed that he had secured funding of almost €7 million to be spent on intervention at the site in 2023.
The Director’s salary is expected to start at €102,567 and may incrementally increase to €126,486 – in line with other Director roles in the public service. The appointment is on a temporary fixed-term contract for a period of up to 2.5 years.
The complex process of recovering the remains from the Tuam site and trying to identify them could take several years.
Engineering works and the construction of onsite facilities will also be required in advance of excavation of the site.
O’Gorman told survivors and relatives in November that the first steps in this process will involve the Director engaging “a range of appropriately qualified experts to undertake the excavation, recovery and post-recovery analysis processes”.
The Director will also have to obtain any necessary consents for carrying out relevant work, arrange for the carrying out of remedial works to the land on completion of the recovery of remains, and provide regular updates to relatives of the deceased, other stakeholders and the public.
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