Appointment of Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam
Ó An Roinn Leanaí, Comhionannais, Míchumais, Lánpháirtíochta agus Óige
Foilsithe
An t-eolas is déanaí
Teanga: Níl leagan Gaeilge den mhír seo ar fáil.
Ó An Roinn Leanaí, Comhionannais, Míchumais, Lánpháirtíochta agus Óige
Foilsithe
An t-eolas is déanaí
Teanga: Níl leagan Gaeilge den mhír seo ar fáil.
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’ Gorman, today announced the appointment of Mr Daniel Mac Sweeney as Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam.
Mr Mac Sweeney will head up the independent Office that has been established under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 to oversee the important and highly sensitive work of ensuring the children’s remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam are recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way. Mr Mac Sweeney’s appointment follows a recruitment competition run by the Public Appointments Service.
A key priority for Mr Mac Sweeney in the first instance will be to engage with relatives, survivors and former residents of the Tuam institution in relation to the intervention there. Work is ongoing to establish core staffing and administrative structures, and to appoint an Advisory Board to support Mr Mac Sweeney in his work.
Speaking about the appointment, Minister O’Gorman said:
“I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Daniel Mac Sweeney as the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam. Daniel will oversee the long awaited intervention at the site of the former Mother and Baby institution in the town. He has extensive expertise and experience contributing to, leading and overseeing humanitarian programmes in the international arena, including in relation to missing persons and identification programmes involving the use of DNA, which will be invaluable in the Tuam Director role.”
Separately, the Minister also secured government approval today to engage Ms Sheila Nunan to act on his behalf in leading the process of negotiation with all religious bodies who had a historical involvement in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.
The purpose of the negotiator role is to undertake, on behalf of the Minister, the ongoing negotiations with the Religious Congregations, lay Catholic organisations and Church Leaders who were involved with Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, with a view to securing a financial contribution towards the cost of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.
Recognising the importance of these negotiations to survivors and to the public, the Minister believes that engaging this bespoke expertise is essential to advancing the process in the most advantageous manner.
The Institutional Burials Act 2022, which came into effect on 15 July 2022, provides the underlying legislative basis for an intervention, whereby the remains of those who died in residential institutions, in respect of which a public body has or had a relevant role, and who were buried in a manifestly inappropriate manner, may be recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way.
Last October the government made an Order, under the Institutional Burials Act 2022, to direct the establishment of an independent Office to lead an intervention at the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution at Tuam. The making of the Order followed on from Resolutions in the Dáil and Seanad in September approving the draft Order that was agreed by Government in July.
Funding of almost €7 million has been made available for the 2023 costs of this multi-annual intervention.
The Director will wish to engage with relatives, survivors and former residents of the Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam before engaging more widely with the media and general public.
Mr Daniel Mac Sweeney worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2007 to 2023 in various roles focussed on the humanitarian protection of persons affected by armed conflict and violence including detainees, civilians, separated families and missing persons.
Most recently, he was the ICRC Envoy on Missing Persons in the Caucasus, focused on the work to clarify the fate and whereabouts of over 2,300 people unaccounted for after conflicts of the 1990s and 2008, working with authorities in the region to reorganise ICRC-led identification programs.
Mr Mac Sweeney has experience of leading multidisciplinary humanitarian programmes. From 2016 to 2021, he was the ICRC’s Head of Protection Operations, overseeing the ICRC’s protection work globally from the Geneva headquarters, including the ICRC’s role in various programmes around the world focused on clarifying the fate of missing persons and supporting families. From 2011 to 2016, he led ICRC protection work in Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon respectively, focussing on detention, protection of civilians and the missing. From 2007 to 2011, he worked as an ICRC delegate in Afghanistan, Iraq and Tunisia.
Mr Mac Sweeney qualified as a solicitor from the Law Society of Ireland in 2000 and worked in Ireland, the UK and the Middle East before joining the ICRC. He has a BA and LLB from the University of Galway.
The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme will provide financial payments to an estimated 34,000 people and a form of enhanced medical card to an estimated 19,000 people at a cost of approximately €800 million. It will be the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the State in terms of numbers of beneficiaries.
In January 2021, following publication of the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth wrote to all of the Religious Congregations involved with Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions and to both the Catholic and Church of Ireland Primates.
Following government approval of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme proposals in November 2021, the Minister again wrote to the religious bodies and commenced meetings on an individual basis with six Religious Congregations and one lay Catholic organisation, as well as the Church of Ireland. It is agreed that, while discussions are ongoing, the process will be treated as confidential. However, a full report will be provided to Government once the negotiations are concluded.
Ms Nunan will now undertake, on behalf of the Minister, the ongoing negotiations with the religious bodies who were involved with Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions, with a view to securing a financial contribution towards the cost of the Payment Scheme. Having engaged with all parties, Ms Nunan will report to the Minister in respect of a recommended outcome which the Minister will then bring to Government.
Ms Sheila Nunan has extensive leadership experience in civil society organisations. A former teacher and school principal, she was General Secretary of Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), the largest teaching union on the island of Ireland representing members North and South from 2009 to 2019. Prior to this, Ms Nunan served as Deputy General Secretary and President of the INTO. From 2017 to 2019 she was President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). She was vice-chair of ICTU’s Public Service Committee and part of the negotiating team on all national Public Service Pay Agreements between 2010 and 2019.