Forensic experts to be paid €4.5m as mother and baby home excavation enters second phase
Darragh Mc Donagh
Nearly €4.5 million is expected to be spent on forensic experts over the next 18 months as excavation works continue at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.
The bodies of 796 infants are believed to be buried on the site, and a statutory body was established in 2023 to excavate, analyse and identify the remains. Work began on the site last June.
That body, the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), is now seeking tenders from a range of forensic experts to provide services as the excavation enters its second phase.
They include forensic odontologists, who will be paid up to €500 per day to analyse dental material from excavated remains, and forensic photographers, who will document human remains at the site for a maximum of €450 per day.
The ODAIT is also looking to hire forensic anthropologists or human osteoarchaeologists, who will be tasked with analysing human skeletal remains in a lab, including any evidence of skeletal trauma or pathological conditions.
Similar experts will be required on site in Tuam, where they will excavate, recover and record human remains and other artefacts, according to tender documents published this morning by the ODAIT.
As many as 100 economic operators will be awarded framework agreements under the tendering process, and it is estimated that the combined value of the contracts is just under €4.4 million excluding VAT.
It was originally estimated that the total cost of the excavation would be between €6 million and €13 million. A budget of €9.4 million was allocated for the project last year, but it was reported in November that expected costs could rise by 20 per cent in 2026.
The Bon Secours Sisters, who operated the mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961, are contributing around €2.5 million towards the cost of the project, with some funds also coming from Galway County Council.
A total of 11 sets of remains had been recovered at the former mother and baby home by November, some of which had been discovered in a second burial site outside of the Memorial Garden.
Initial assessments suggest that all of the remains discovered to date were those of infants who had been buried in coffins.
Before it was purchased by the Bon Secours Sisters, the site in Tuam was the location of a workhouse between 1846 and 1916, after which it was used as a barracks until 1925.
Previous tenders published by the ODAIT included a call for creative campaign services worth an estimated €220,000, forensic lab coordination services valued at €520,000, and stakeholder relation and PR training services worth €130,000.
