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

Anyone who spent time in an institution for more than six months and was subsequently boarded out will be able to qualify under the scheme. A broad statement was made that boarded out people were being excluded, so it is important to clarify that anyone who was in an institution and was subsequently boarded out can fit within the remit of the scheme.

On the suggestion that this will be an exclusionary scheme, I have worked at all points to broaden it. Consider the original recommendations from the commission in respect of the scheme that it proposed - no one included after 1974 and no one included if he or she were accompanied in the institution. Those recommendations would have applied to approximately 6,500 people.

The interdepartmental group used an overall timeline of six months. This would have included approximately 19,000 people. What I am bringing forward will include 34,000 people in the payment scheme. This payment scheme is one part of the State's response.

Deputy Higgins addressed other aspects in the context of information and tracing, the Institutional Burials Act 2022, free access to counselling and the records and memorials centre. The State is bringing forward a wide range of responses to individuals who spent time in mother and baby and county institutions.

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