Vol. 571 No. 1
1259 Mr. F. McGrath asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government why his Department raised no objection to the burial of the extra 22 women when 133 bodies were being removed from a Magdalen Laundry graveyard in 1993 in north Dublin; and if so many unexplained, unregistered deaths can be investigated. [19840/03]
On 25 May 1993 a licence for the exhumation of the remains of 133 persons, subject to conditions set out in the licence, was granted on behalf of the then Minister for the Environment and Local Government. In the course of carrying out the exhumations it was discovered that there were remains interred in the burial ground that were not covered by the exhumation licence granted on 25 May and for which there appeared to be no records to assist with identification.
A further exhumation licence covering these unidentified remains was granted on 31 August 1993. The information provided at the time by the applicants was to the effect that the additional remains were those of former residents of the convent who would have been placed with the Sisters of Charity for various reasons and who would have remained in residential care until their deaths. The investigation of whether any of the deaths of those exhumed were unregistered is a matter for the Garda authorities who have in the course of their inquiries examined the Department's file in the matter.
