Thursday 05 June 2014 14.50 The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has said the Government is determined to reveal as much truth as possible about the Tuam babies.
The bodies of hundreds of children and babies born to unmarried mothers in the Bon Secours home in Tuam were buried in unmarked graves between 1925 and 1961.
Brendan Howlin said an inter-departmental group met today to examine what needs to be investigated about the Tuam case and other mother-and-baby homes.
He told the Dáil the discovery of a mass grave of infants and children was so shocking that it jarred everyone to their core.
Mr Howlin said there was a determination to get to the bottom of what he described as "this awfulness" that was decades in the making.
A group from several Government departments met this morning and it will report back to Government within two weeks to outline what should be investigated.
The minister said the truth must be revealed and all necessary inquiries must take place.
He said these include criminal ones, if they are thought appropriate by the authorities.
Independent TD Catherine Murphy said the grave in Tuam should be treated as a crime scene.
She also asked if drug trials had been carried out on the children.
Sinn Féin's Sandra McClellan called for a full audit of all the files from the mother-and-baby homes in the possession of the Health Service Executive.
Calls for inquiry into Tuam babies scandal
Meanwhile, a congregation of nuns that ran three of the State's mother-and-baby homes has said it would welcome an independent inquiry into the issues surrounding the burial of babies and children in unmarked graves.
The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran mother-and-baby homes in Sean Ross Abbey in Co Tipperary, Bessborough near Cork city and Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.
In a statement to RTÉ News, a spokesperson for the congregation said it would be happy to take part in such an inquiry to establish the truth about what it called a "very sad chapter in the history of Irish society".
Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary yesterday called on the Bon Secours Sisters to "act upon their responsibilities".
Dr Neary said it is in the "interest of the common good" that the order does so.
He welcomed the Government's official examination of how children from church-run mother-and-baby homes were buried.
Researcher Catherine Corless said the bodies were buried in a sewage tank on the grounds and that some of the dead were as young as three months old.
The Catholic Church ran many social services in the 20th Century, including mother-and-baby homes where tens of thousands of unmarried pregnant women, including rape victims, were sent to give birth.
Like the Magdalene Laundries, where single women and girls were sent, the mother-and-baby homes were run by nuns but received State funding.
They acted as adoption agencies and in that capacity were overseen by the State.
Yesterday, Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan established a cross-departmental examination of deaths in mother-and-baby homes.
Other mass graves exist in at least three other former homes across the country.
Welcoming the move, Archbishop Neary said he was "greatly shocked" by the number of children buried in the mass grave on the site of a disused septic tank.
He acknowledged the huge emotional wrench the mothers suffered when giving up their babies for adoption or witnessing their deaths.
"Many of the young vulnerable mothers would already have been rejected by their families," he said.
Dr Neary also vowed to co-operate with the families of the deceased in seeking to obtain a dignified reinterment of the children's remains in consecrated ground.
Committee wants memorial plaque erected
Children's Home Graveyard Committee Chairperson Teresa Killeen Kelly has said the immediate concern is to have a proper memorial plaque erected to commemorate the babies and children who were buried in the mass grave in Tuam.
She said it was a "total shock" to the group to find out that so many children aged between two-and-a-half and eight-years-old had died, and that their ages prompted questions about how they had died.
She said the Committee met the Bon Secours nuns last week and hoped they would respond in terms of helping with a commemorative plaque.
She said the nuns said they didn't know that such a large number of children were buried at the site.
She said: "They made a small donation to the project but we felt that wasn't enough, so three of our committee met with them last Tuesday in Galway to really put it to them that this is horrific stuff, that it is unacceptable that that many children are buried there - and they said also they didn't know that amount of children were buried there.
"And we said we're here to make sure that project is done and someone has to take responsibility for that."
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