Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Government's publication of the heads of the protection of life during pregnancy Bill. I look forward to seeing the legislation on the Statute Book as we rise for the summer.

I wish to raise two matters with the Tánaiste, the first of which concerns the Bethany Home. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, have met with the survivors. What occurred in that home is well known to many Members of the Oireachtas, as is the fact that those victims have been excluded from any form of redress. At various junctures, the Government has given commitments to consider the Bethany Home issue and to come forward with a proposal on how the victims might be acknowledged. Can the Tánaiste tell us what that proposal might be and the current status of those considerations?

My second question is about Mr. Justice Quirke's work on the redress scheme for the Magdalen survivors. As the Tánaiste knows, Summerhill in Wexford was inexplicably excluded from that redress scheme.

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