Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to accede to the Deputy's appeal, notwithstanding the passion with which he makes it. When the Government decided, on foot of the report of Judge Maureen Harding Clark, to have an ex gratia compensation scheme - the term "redress scheme" is more appropriate because it is not possible to compensate those concerned with money for the traumatic impacts on their lives - we asked the judge to recommend the terms of the scheme. We made this decision because we believed she had the expertise to make recommendations. I accept, however, that I made the final decision in conjunction with the Government. I am not trying to pass the buck to the judge who simply gave advice.

When a plea was made to extend the terms of the initial scheme, I sought and secured Judge Harding Clark's advice and spent some time discussing the matter with her. She took a strong view that the scheme should not be extended for a number of reasons. While the Government did not have an obligation to introduce a redress scheme, on the basis that the women in question could not vindicate their rights through the courts for a number of reasons, we believed it was right to establish a redress scheme.

When one opens up a redress scheme of this kind, one will always find some people are unhappy because they find the redress insufficient or the cut-off point - age in this case - is unreasonable. We felt there were a number of hard cases outside the scheme and we asked the State Claims Agency to deal with them. I believe the agency has dealt with them.

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