Will there ever come a day when our political leaders choose the honourable path and prioritise survivors over commercial interests?

The decision to allow apartments to be built at the site of one of the country’s most notorious Mother and Baby Homes has been rightly condemned as ‘shameful’ and ‘abhorrent’.

Bessborough was run as a mother and baby institution by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary from 1922 to 1998. Thousands of women and children passed through the gates of the Cork site where at one point the infant mortality rate ran as high as 75 per cent.

Of 923 recorded infant deaths at the home, there are burial records for only 64, leaving the whereabouts of 859 childrens’ remains unknown.

In 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation concluded in its lengthy report that it was ‘highly likely’ that some of the missing children are buried in an unmarked mass grave on the grounds.

The same report criticised the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary for their less than forthcoming attitude in assisting its inquiries, and that’s putting it mildly. Survivors and their supporters have repeatedly called for the grounds to be preserved and marked out of respect for these babies. One woman who was born at Bessborough said the memory of the dead children is being desecrated by ‘the building of apartments on their bones’.

Cllr Marie O’Sullivan, who was also born at Bessborough, spoke to this newspaper to voice her concern over plans for 106 apartments. Bessborough should be acquired by the State and preserved as a mark of respect for those who died there. There is leverage for a Compulsory Purchase Order to be applied.

The State is quick enough to pursue CPOs when it comes to greenways and other schemes. Surely showing some modicum of sensitivity to survivors and their families far outweighs a cycleway to boost tourism?

The former Magdalene Laundry in Dublin’s inner city is now in public ownership and has been turned into a museum.  The State issued an apology to survivors of mother and baby institutions several years ago. But it has been less forthcoming with redress, and shows less enthusiasm again for protecting and preserving burial sites.

The spotlight of the world shone on Tuam after historian Catherine Corless exposed the plight of 796 dead babies buried in a septic tank at the former mother and baby home. A painstaking excavation of that site is ongoing.

The story of Philomena Lee and her search for the son she gave birth to at the Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea also made international headlines.

After decades of abuse, neglect and turning a blind eye, it seems our political leaders have learned absolutely nothing.

Ban sunbeds too

PLANS to introduce a generational smoking ban can’t come quickly enough. The proposal could be discussed at Cabinet before the month is out.

A generational ban was introduced in the UK earlier this year which makes it illegal for tobacco to be sold to people born on or after January 1st, 2009.

Health Minister Jennifer Carroll McNeill said officials in her department were considering all measures to end the ‘epidemic of tobacco-related harm’.

Former health minister Stephen Donnelly passed legislation to raise the minimum legal age to purchase cigarettes to 21 from February 1st 2028. But this would take things a step further.

Ireland’s smoking rate remains higher than most at 17%. The prospect of a tobacco-free nation in 70 or 80 years’ time is surely to be welcomed.

But why stop there? New restrictions on vapes do not go far enough; why not a blanket ban on these also?

Sunbeds should also be outlawed. What possible benefit is there to exposing the skin to extreme levels of ultraviolet radiation that damage cell DNA?

They are ranked in the same cancer-causing category as tobacco and as little as one use of a tanning bed significantly raises the risk of developing deadly melanomas and other skin cancers.