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

We have sought to learn from previous schemes in how we have designed and will implement this one. We examined the residential institutions redress scheme, under which individuals had to appear before a committee to give evidence and face cross-examination. Everyone understands that that was a retraumatising process.

We have designed this scheme based on the length of time in an institution. A person will receive the relevant payment according to his or her length of time in the institution. This means that all an applicant needs to do is prove the amount of time spent in the institution. There will be no calling in, no questioning and no retraumatisation. This is the best way forward in trying to design a scheme that provides individuals with payments quickly - recognising the age of many people - and does not result in a retraumatisation. That is why we have gone with a scheme based on time spent within institutions.

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