Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We have sought to address the specific issues that survivors have raised with me and the committee. We have sought to address the specific things they want to see done. I have spoken already about information and tracing, which has been delivered by the Government. I have also spoken about the Institutional Burials Act, which has been delivered by the Government. The final draft of the redress scheme will be brought to the Cabinet shortly. Speaking superficially to redress and the point the Deputy made in that regard, the Government has been clear that its redress proposals are not fixed on the commission's suggestions. The Government's response to redress was much broader and encapsulated a greater number of survivors and former residents than anything the commission put forward. It is important to recognise that. I have always said that the commission's report is one piece of this, but only one piece.

Turning to what can happen now, we have already seen independent analysis by a group of academics of elements of the commission's report and the executive summary that was redrafted by the Special Rapporteur for Child Protection and the human rights analysis of the report. The commission's report is just one piece of the State's response. My focus and that of my Department has been on meeting the explicit needs of survivors and the range of issues they have set out.