Work to exhume remains at Tuam mother and baby home to begin this year, Cabinet to hear

Work will commence on exhuming remains at the site of the mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway, this year, the Cabinet will be told today.

Alongside discussion of long-awaited cost-of-living measures, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman will update the Cabinet on his plan to publish the first annual report on the implementation of the action plan for survivors and former residents of the mother and baby homes.

Following the work of local historian Catherine Corless, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes concluded last year that 978 children had died at the Tuam home. It said the “physical conditions were dire” at the home owned by Galway County Council and run by the Bon Secours Sisters.

He will tell colleagues that there have been almost 7,000 applications to the Adoption Authority of Ireland and Tusla for information since the Birth Information and Tracing Act was launched, with 2,000 cases completed.

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In relation to the Burials Act, to allow for the excavation and exhumation of the site at Tuam, he will say the recruitment of a director to head up an independent office is under way and the aim is to commence work at the site as early as possible in 2023, while a first phase of works has begun on the National Records and Memorial Centre at the former Magdalene laundry in Seán MacDermott Street in Dublin.

Meanwhile, a paper was also being prepared for the Cabinet on a national cyber risk assessment update done by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). It was unclear last night whether it would be given to Ministers today or presented at a later meeting of the Cabinet.

It comes in the wake of two major breaches – at the Health Service Executive and Munster Technological University, and the Virgin Media hack which was emerging last night.

It is understood that the assessment recommends a register of all critical infrastructure services be drawn up, and new measures be put in place to ensure that new critical infrastructure has cyber security designed from the start. It identifies a range of options available to the State to help mitigate the risk of cyber attacks, or protect against weaknesses.

In the wake of calls to remove security cameras made by a Chinese state-backed company in Leinster House and on other State properties, it is understood to outline how the State can outline which equipment from which vendors can be used in different parts of a network, as well as how it can use investor screening if an overseas company is buying a critical asset in Ireland. It also outlines how Ireland could use export controls on goods manufactured here that could be exported and used in spyware or for other purposes.

The Cabinet will also consider a proposal to deploy 30 Defence Forces personnel to train Ukrainian armed forces members as part of a European Union mission.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien will update the Cabinet on a report on recruitment and retention in retained fire services, which was published in December, and ask the Government to note the positive decision on the Croí Cónaithe apartment supply scheme, which aims to support the building of 5,000 apartments.

The scheme aims to bridge a current “viability gap” in delivery between the cost of building apartments and the market sale price.

The Cabinet will also consider a quarterly expenditure management report from the Department of Education, with Minister for Education Norma Foley updating the Cabinet with a report covering the period up to the end of last year.

The Government will also consider revised estimates from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, as well as signing up to new United Nations and International Monetary Fund agreements on marine biodiversity and borrowing, respectively.