‘We need to do the right thing’ - Taoiseach orders talks with Bessborough landowners over apartments construction

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has vowed to “explore all options” in a row over planned construction of apartments on the site of former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork.

A decision last week by An Comisiún Pleanála to uphold planning permission from Cork City Council for a new apartment complex on the site was met with outrage as activists demanded a memorial site be built instead.

Councillors in Cork City voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling on Government to make a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on the land in question.

However, Mr Martin has resisted those calls amid claims that 900 women and children are buried there.

In February, city planners approved plans from developers Estuary View Enterprises for 140 apartment units on site of the former Cork Heritage Park, which is situated on the grounds of the former Bessborough institution, in which over 900 infants were buried.

A formal state apology was made to women and their families over the maltreatment they suffered while in the mother and baby home in the past century. 

The Taoiseach provided an update on his intentions going forward, taking to social media to announce his plans to “do the right thing”.

“I have asked Cork City Council to engage with the landowners at Bessborough with a view to exploring all options for the future of the site,” Mr Martin wrote.

“Bessborough is of huge importance to many people and families, at home and abroad.

“We need to do the right thing for all concerned.”

Social Democrats party leader Holly Cairns has responded to the Taoiseach’s call for dialogue, praising the “extraordinary work of campaigners” in addressing the sensitive issue.

‘Dark day’ as planning upheld at site of former Cork Mother and Baby Home

“Councillors on Cork City Council have voted, on two separate occasions, to buy the land at Bessborough,” she said in a statement.

Ms Cairns rebuked Mr Martin’s suggestion that “the right thing” should be done, instead urging the desgination of the site as “a site of conscience”.

“[The Taoiseach] could unseal all records about burials from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission and request that the Attorney General order an inquest into the deaths of the hundreds of women and children who died there,” she continued.

“These women and children were failed by the State in life. We must not fail them in death.”