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

I thank the Deputy and recognise what she is saying in terms of communication, particularly the communication of this issue. I recognised in my opening statement that this issue was not communicated properly. That is something we should have resolved. We have our quarterly bulletin but we should have provided an update on this specific issue. Survivors should not have been reading about this in response to a media query.

The Deputy makes the very fair point about the age of many of the survivors. On the issue of the payments legislation specifically, the final touches are being put to the full draft of that legislation. I need to bring it to Cabinet and then we will look to bring it rapidly into the Dáil for Second Stage. If it is of any reassurance, we are not just working on the legislation but are working on the basis that it will be passed and are putting in place the mechanisms that will actually allow for the processing of these payments. There will have to be a significant infrastructure behind this. We are talking about up to 34,000 individual payments and 16,000 enhanced medical card applications. There is a lot of work that has to go into delivering that and in a timely manner. That is happening at the same time as the legislation. As I say, I hope to have the legislation to Cabinet this month and then it will be brought swiftly into the Oireachtas after that. I am not meaning to sound defensive in any way, as this legislation needs to happen, but just to recognise that the unit in the Department has delivered the Birth Information and Tracing Act, and a lot of work around this; not just the legislation itself but its implementation. It has delivered the Institutional Burials Act and, even today, there is a piece of work going through Cabinet in terms of delivery of the agency. The Department has been working on this lived experience initiative, on the records and memorials centre, and on other elements of the scheme such as the funds orf memorialisation being undertaken by groups. I think eight of the 22 items of the action plan have been completed and another 12 are under way. An intensive body of work is being undertaken. I take the Deputy's point that redress is of huge importance to survivors and needs to be acted on swiftly.