Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McGarrigle for her opening statement. The mother and baby institutions are a really dark stain on the history of this State. Listening to the testimonies at the committee of those who were personally affected was heart-wrenching. I have met a number of survivors and it was absolutely traumatising for me, even though I did not have to go through that experience. Hearing their personal experiences was absolutely traumatising and it is really a dark stain on our society.

The exclusion from this redress scheme of infants who spent less than six months in a mother and baby home and of preventing them from accessing an enhanced medical card tells me that survivors have not been listened to. This was one of the things survivors called for. Infants were taken from their mothers, they were stolen and, in some cases, they were shipped overseas. The Government is effectively telling these children that their forced separation and suffering is not worthy of compensation and telling women that their suffering may only be worth €5,000. To me, that is an absolute scandal. Will Ms McGarrigle explain the rational as to why children will only receive a general payment if they were in an institution for six months or more?