A leading cleric says the discovery of almost 800 babies bodies next to a Galway mother and baby home is as bad as anything that happened in Nazi Germany.
The government has promised a comprehensive investigation into the deaths of children at mother and baby homes nationwide.
Brendan Howlin told the Dail that several departments are involving in a 'scoping exercise' to determine the extent of any mass graves the country.
The issue was raised by the opposition during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil after news that the remains were found in a disused septic tank in Tuam.
Fr. Brian Darcy says he thought previous scandals involving the church had left him 'unshockable', and people need to be brought to justice for 'sinful crimes'.
"I think if the facts are as bad as they seem to be – and I've no reason to think they're not – I think this will cause a massive revolution about the kind of country that we had and the kind of country that we're all children of is simply impossible to believe that" he said.
"At the end of a long life in the priesthood I thought it was unshockable – but I have to say that this is as shockable as something that happened in Germany in the war" he added.
