SOME SURVIVORS OF Mother and Baby Homes are likely to be offered financial payments as part of a redress scheme to acknowledge the suffering they experienced in the institutions.
The Minister for Children and Equality is bringing a proposal to Government for a scheme to offer redress to survivors of the homes.
In a letter to survivors, families and advocates today, Minister Roderic O’Gorman said the scheme would include payments and an enhanced medical card.
“The scheme will provide financial payments and a form of enhanced medical card to defined groups in acknowledgement of suffering experienced while resident in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions,” he said.
“Once the details are approved by Government, all the relevant information and related documents will be shared directly with you by email and published on my Department’s website.”
O’Gorman said the “additional time needed to finalise Government’s deliberations on these complex issues is regretted and I want to reassure you that this will not cause a delay in the scheme opening up to applications”.
The Clann Project, an initiative aiming to establish the truth of unmarried mothers’ experiences, has called for the scheme to be inclusive of everyone who has been affected by the Homes.
Responding to the details of the scheme, Claire McGettrick and Maeve O’Rourke of the Clann Project said the government needs to learn from the shortcomings of the Magdalene Laundries scheme and that it should not accept the findings of the Commission of Investigation, over which there are “grave concerns regarding its methods”.
The redress efforts should include access to records and inquests into women and children’s disappearances, they said.
“Citizenship rights must be given to people who were removed from the jurisdiction as children.
“As the UN Committee against Torture has told the government in the case of Elizabeth Coppin vs Ireland, acceptance of a payment must not preclude the right to take further legal action,” they said.
It’s expected that the minister will bring the measure to Cabinet for discussion on Tuesday alongside an “Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions”.
It outlines how the Government intends to meet commitments that it made in response to the Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes that was published in January earlier this year.
“The plan takes account of the Commission’s recommendations as well as the expressed needs and concerns of survivors, former residents and their families,” O’Gorman said.
“While developing the Action Plan, and conscious of the need to move swiftly, we have also been working to progress priority actions. For each action, the plan will identify milestones and timelines, and set out progress to date and next steps.”
Applications for the redress scheme are hoped to open in 2022.
With reporting by Órla Ryan
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