Excavation works at Tuam Mother and Baby Home set to enter new phase
Nearly €1.4m will be spent hiring forensic experts to assist with the next stage of the project, which has officially recovered the remains of 99 infants at the site
The state body charged with excavating the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam is set to spend nearly €1.4 million hiring specialist forensic personnel as it enters a new phase of the project.
The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) is seeking tenders from suitably qualified experts as it continues to unearth and analyse infant remains at the site.
It is planning to hire up to 10 geomatics assistants to capture geospatial data and build 3D digital models of recovered human remains, as well as up to 20 osteologically trained forensic lab technicians to clean, scan and sort commingled skeletal remains.
Tender documents refer to this as “phase three” of the complex forensic project, which had officially recovered the remains of 99 children at the site by the end of July. It is believed that up to 796 infants could be buried at the location.
The tender states that the recovery operation is “large in scale and complexity”, and will centre on the retrieval of commingled remains of infants and young children who died at the institution between 1925 and 1961.
The primary objective of the intervention is to afford dignity to the children who were “manifestly inappropriately interred” by recovering their remains, establishing their causes of death where possible, and either returning them to family members or arranging a respectful reinterment.
Prospective service providers have until October 16 to submit tenders, with contracts scheduled to run until at least June 30, 2027, subject to further ministerial extensions. The estimated value of the contract is €1.365 million.
ODAIT was formally established in 2023 under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 following public outrage over the burial of hundreds of babies on the grounds of the former institution run by the Bon Secours order.