Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the Minister to the House. This Commencement Matter relates to the Government's mother and baby institutions payment scheme. I acknowledge the Minister's commitment since coming into office. This has not been an easy issue to deal with as it is complex and diverse, with many strands to it. There are many stakeholders involved, with the lives of many individuals and those of their children, families and guardians affected, and there are a range of dynamics at play relating to this very sensitive and difficult issue.

I also acknowledge the work of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth - what a mouthful - in seeking written submissions from individuals or groups on the general scheme of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme Bill. I looked at the Oireachtas website before coming in here this afternoon and was reminded that the closing date for receipt of submissions is 1 p.m. on Friday, 6 May 2022. It is important that submissions are made and that they are concise, clear and to the point.That helps everyone, including the people who are making the submissions and those who are ultimately processing these at the committee. I thank the committee for its continuing work in this area.

My understanding is the Department is currently establishing a scheme to be known as the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. It is proposed the scheme will provide for financial payments and-or an enhanced medical card to defined groups in acknowledgement of the suffering experienced while resident in mother and baby home institutions. I also understand the scheme will be administered by an independent executive office within the Department.

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. What are the timelines in respect of the scheme? When does he think the first supports, such as the enhanced medical card, which is important, will be available? It is not all about money, and I sometimes think that message is lost. People who experienced various issues around this subject need ongoing supports, to which the Government has strongly committed. My focus today is on the enhanced medical card.

There are people who need supports. I meet people who have issues with accessing mental health supports. They are being turned away from counselling services. They may choose not to go to certain counselling services because of previous experience with them, or they feel they do not have trust in a service, or they want some sort of independent counselling service, or they want to avail of a service that is somewhat impartial and away from other members of their family or a spouse. There are many good reasons that may be the case.

Will the Minister outline the current position regarding the enhanced medical card, how quickly we can get that up and running, and when the scheme will be rolled out? Perhaps he might also make any other comments he might have on matter. I again thank him for coming to the House to address this issue.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for his kind comments, for raising this important issue, and for giving me the opportunity to come to the House today to provide an update on the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. The provision of a form of enhanced medical card to survivors through the mother and baby institutions payments scheme will require the establishment of legislative and administrative structures to provide statutory access to the relevant health services, assess eligibility and carefully manage and share the relevant personal data with the HSE in respect of the issuing of these cards.

Given the scale and significance of the approved proposals for the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, an integrated piece of legislation is being prepared to encompass both aspects of the scheme, that is, the financial payments and the enhanced medical cards of which the Senator spoke. This approach will make the scheme much more user-friendly as survivors will only have to make one application to be considered for both aspects of the scheme. Last month, I secured Government approval for the heads of a Bill for the mother and baby institutional payments scheme and the referral of the heads of the Bill to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for drafting. I sought priority drafting for the Bill to ensure it can be introduced to the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible.

I have also referred the draft heads of the Bill to the Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for pre-legislative scrutiny. I have requested its assistance in meeting the urgent need to deliver the scheme for survivors as soon as possible. Like the Senator, I thank the committee for its speedy response in that regard as it quickly launched a public consultation on the general scheme of the Bill. As the Senator mentioned, the deadline for that is Friday, 6 May. My officials and I look forward to engaging with the committee during the pre-legislative scrutiny process.

Once the legislation has been passed by the Oireachtas and the administrative infrastructure required to deliver the scheme has been established, the scheme will open for applications for financial awards and enhanced medical cards. It is my hope we can get this Bill passed in the autumn term and open the scheme for initial applications in late 2022. That is the timeline I am operating towards.

A person will be eligible for an enhanced medical card if he or she was resident in a relevant institution for six months or more. The card will provide access to the same suite of services offered to those who hold the Magdalen restorative justice ex gratiascheme medical card. For those eligible applicants who live outside of Ireland, they will have the choice of accepting a once-off health support payment of €3,000 instead of the medical card, if they wish. This will be a recognition of, and a contribution towards, their individual health needs.While acknowledging that healthcare costs can vary significantly between different people and jurisdictions, a payment of €3,000 would represent a practical measure of acknowledgement for those living overseas who choose not to avail of the enhanced medical card. If eligible people prefer to take the medical card instead of the once-off health support payment, this would mean that when they are visiting Ireland, or if they were ever to move back here, they would be able to avail of our health services using this enhanced medical card.

The Senator spoke about other supports and it is important to note that beyond the institutional payments scheme, and as part of the broader action plan in response to the report of the commission, counselling support has been made available to all survivors since before the publication of the commission’s final report. It is being provided through the national counselling service which has been strengthened with additional investment and an expanded out-of-hours service. It is important to say as well that counselling is available free of charge and survivors of institutions are entitled to priority access to that free counselling service.

Additionally, the Department of Health, in partnership with the HSE, is working on establishing a patient liaison advocacy service. When up and running, that service will have a dedicated team that can provide bespoke information and supports to survivors to assist them in accessing the health services they may need. The Department of Health is also working with the Health Research Board on a research project to identify the further health needs of survivors. This research will help to further inform future health policy and service responses.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I thank the Minister for that informative response. I will comment on three elements. Regarding the eligibility of those applicants who are overseas and outside the State, it is likely that many of them may be living in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and places like that. It is critically important that this message regarding eligibility is disseminated and that to do so we tap into our connections with the diaspora, as well as making contact through our embassy. We have an amazing network of Irish support groups across the UK and it is also critically important this message is got out to them.

There may also be issues regarding the conditionality of the €3,000 payment. The Minister does not have time to talk this through with us now, but I will be interested to hear more about this aspect at some stage. My request now, however, is that we reach out to the Irish who have gone abroad and are now living in other communities across the UK, Europe, America and Australia. I thank the Minister for his response again, which was informative and brought us up to date.

I reiterate that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is seeking submissions regarding the general scheme of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme Bill. The deadline stated for submissions is 1 p.m., and not 5 p.m. strangely, on Friday, 6 May 2022. This is extremely important. Email submissions should be made to MBIPS@oireachtas.ie. I again thank the Minister for coming to the House and for his ongoing work in this important area.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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Senator Boyhan is right regarding the importance of survivors living overseas being informed of their ability to make claims under this legislation. Once it is passed, we will have a dedicated information campaign. We will co-ordinate that with the Department of Foreign Affairs and our embassies around the world and also link in with Irish diaspora groups. When I was in the US as part of the week of festivities celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, I met with a group of survivors. It ended up being online, but I met with that group from the US. I had hoped to meet them in person, but that did not work out. It was just good to meet them and hear from them directly, although it was not the first time I met with that group. Therefore, we are seeking to have these kinds of engagements with diaspora groups. It is an important facet.

Regarding wider work under way in this context, and as the Senator will be aware, the commission's report set out 22 actions. Some involve significant items of legislation. Next week, I will be back in this House in the context of Second Stage of the Birth Information and Tracing Bill 2022. It is important legislation that will provide survivors with full access to all information. Yesterday, we completed Committee Stage of the Institutional Burials Bill 2022, which will allow us to deal with Tuam and similar burial sites. That legislation will be coming to this House in due course. Additionally, about a month ago we announced approval for a national centre for research and remembrance and the identification of Sean McDermott Street as its location. We will also begin work on the legislation needed to provide protection for records and allow access to them. This project will also represent significant regeneration of the north inner city. Therefore, work is under way on all elements of the State’s response.