CORK South-West TD Holly Cairns says a redress scheme for mothers and babies who spent time in Irish institutions is inadequate and will not right the grave wrongs perpetrated against innocent women and children by the State and religious orders.
The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill was passed last week and 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’.
Deputy Cairns said: ‘This redress scheme is flawed, callous, inhumane, and discriminatory. Even at the last hour, there was a Government amendment to further limit the number of people who will actually get any kind of redress.’
Deputy Cairns said that 40% of survivors are excluded from the scheme and 24,000 people are ineligible for any compensation. Anyone who as a child spent less than six months in a mother and baby home will be excluded from the scheme. ‘There has yet to be an explanation for how anybody ever came up with the six-month criteria,’ said Deputy Cairns.
‘We are talking about some of the worst human rights violations imaginable, including suspicious deaths that were never investigated; forced labour and servitude; forced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment; discrimination based on sex, race, ethnicity and class; forced family separation; non-consensual medical trials; arbitrary detention; and interference with family life, private life and freedom of expression.
‘Instead of taking these harrowing experiences into account, the Government scheme was solely about compensation based on the amount of time spent in a mother and baby institution or county home.
‘This flawed redress scheme is completely inadequate and will not right the grave wrongs perpetrated against innocent women and children by the State and religious orders.’
