Government needs to make sure survivors of mother and baby homes not ‘left behind’

The Government needs to make sure that survivors of mother and baby homes are not “left behind” in terms of qualifying for redress, Fine Gael leader in the Seanad Regina Doherty has said.

Ms Doherty said she did not see “any logical reason” as to why 24,000 survivors were being excluded from the scheme.

Legislation to establish a redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes passed through the Dáil in February and was under debate in the Seanad on Wednesday.

The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 provides for redress to all mothers and babies who spent “not less than” six months in institutions, and not to those children who were “boarded out”.

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Speaking in the Seanad on Wednesday, Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty: “I don’t understand the difference between somebody who was there for a couple of days before the deadline versus a couple of days after the deadline and nobody, no scientific evidence, nor even any logic.

“What that does is it allows us to come back unfortunately to the idea that it boils down to money and I hate that, I really, really hate that.”

Ms Doherty said by excluding those 24,000 survivors was “compounding” the hurt and trauma they had already experienced.

[ Left behind - survivors subjected to medical experiments in mother and baby homes ]

“I really know that’s not Government’s intention, so I’m asking with our support, and I hope I have the support of all of our colleagues, to go back to Government to go back to mine and your Cabinet colleagues, our Government representatives, and ask these people to not leave anybody behind, to recognise the hurt that we have caused in the last couple of months since you brought this bill through the Dáil,” she told the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman.

Ms Doherty added that the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe had announced “eye-watering figures of financial expectation” on Tuesday and that “the one thing I absolutely know is that we’re not short of money”.

She said other Governments had failed survivors and that “we are at a crossroads now where we should not fail anybody and we shouldn’t leave anybody behind”.

Mr O’Gorman said under the scheme financial payments would be made to 34,000 people and a form of enhanced medical card provided to 19,000 people at a cost of €800 million.

“This will be the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the State in terms of beneficiaries, recognising the huge number of individuals who were impacted by these institutions,” he said.

“The scheme will recognise the time spent and the harsh conditions, emotional abuse and all other forms of mistreatment, stigma, and trauma that was experienced by people while they were resident in these institutions.”

The minister added that the Government also recognised no financial payment or service provision could make up for the “immense pain and suffering endured by so many of our citizens whose lives have been impacted by the shameful legacy of mother and baby institutions in Ireland”.