Developers have proposed that no development should take place over any children s burial ground with human remains in situ at the former Mother and Baby Home at Bessborough, Co Cork, where it is planned that 179 apartments be built.
The barrister for developer MWB Two Ltd made the proposal, one of a number conditions suggested in a submission to the oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála, which reconvened today.
David Holland SC for the developer circulated two documents at the hearing. These included a memo with their proposals for planning conditions and a document on an aerial photograph.
Mr Holland outlined these changes. He said they wanted to provide some form of memorialisation but said that they did not want to impose their view.
Southern Editor
An oral hearing opens later this morning into a controversial planning application for 179 apartments in the grounds of a former mother-and-baby home at Bessborough in Cork.
A campaign group, which is opposing the application, claims the development will encroach on a former children s burial ground there.
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found that 923 babies born at or associated with Bessborough died there between 1922 and 1988.
The burial place of most of them is unknown.
Developer MWB Two Ltd has applied directly to An Bord Pleanála under the Strategic Housing Initiative for permission to build 179 apartments in three blocks on a 3.7-acre site in the grounds of Bessborough.