It is “unacceptable” that the proposed excavation of the Tuam Mother and Baby burial site could take up to a year to commence, according to historian and campaigner for the survivors Catherine Corless.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the historian whose research first revealed the improper burial of up to 800 infants at the home run by the Bons Secours nuns, said waiting another year “prolongs the agony for ageing survivors”.

She added that it also sends a message that illegitimate children in Ireland are still not a priority.

Ms Corless was responding to Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone’s announcement on Tuesday of the publication of draft legislation providing the legal basis for the excavation, exhumation and re-internment of the remains of the infants.

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“Time is running out,” warned Ms Corless, adding the whole process had “dragged on”.

“I have given six years of my life to this. It has been dragging on now since my research was exposed in May 2014. It is just cruel,” said the Co Galway historian.

“Some of the survivors are heading for 80, most of them are in their mid to late 70s and some are over 80. A lot of them in poor health. They just want to see justice served to their mothers, a State apology, a Church apology and an apology from the Bons Secours Sisters. That has been our main focus all along.

“My own aim from the start has been to get those babies out of the sewage tank. Not alone is it important for survivors but it would be a huge statement to the Bons Secours Sisters who did this. They won’t acknowledge it – they won’t take responsibility.

“But if we can undo what they did, that is a huge statement for Ireland going forward that what happened was wrong, you are not getting away with it, we are going to right what you did, and it won’t happen again.”

Explaining why the excavation was important, she said it was a priority for people like Peter Mulryan, whose infant sister died at the home and who was trying to locate her remains. The excavation could also help clarify the exact number of burials.

“I don’t know how many of them are down in that sewage tank, and I don’t know how many would have been adopted illegally,” she said.

Last week, survivors gathered from Galway, Cork, Limerick and elsewhere for the annual lighting up of a commemorative Christmas tree. Mr Mulryan and his wife Kathleen have held the ceremony each year for the past four years. This year Ms Mulryan purchased 800 hearts and painted them white as a memorial to the Tuam infants.

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