Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this Private Members' motion. I endorse its calls to:

- ensure all survivors of Mother and Baby Homes, County Homes, related institutions, unlawful or forced adoption, and abuse in boarding out and adoptive placements receive redress;

- use the findings of the OAK Report as a basis for the redress scheme;

- remove the six-month time-based criteria to access the scheme;

...

- require religious orders and pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the cost of the redress scheme

These are important calls, but I only have a few minutes, so I will only make a point about one aspect.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, recommends the removal of the six-month length of stay requirement for a person who was resident as a child in a relevant institution to be eligible to apply for the scheme. The six-month requirement is not an indicator of whether a child suffered harm, such as from the forced separation of mother and child. The IHREC is of the view that all survivors who were resident as children in relevant institutions for any length of time should be eligible to apply for the scheme. There have been numerous calls nationally and internationally for the redress scheme to be extended. The decision is at odds with the view of the group of 34 clinicians who argue that trauma should not have a six-month minimum applied to it. The UN Human Rights Committee and the Oireachtas committee on children are calling for the scheme to be extended.

Several UN human rights experts have criticised the Government's response to the systematic racism faced by mixed-race people who passed through State and religious institutions between the 1940s and 1990s. These experts believe that the Government has not sufficiently addressed this issue and that its planned redress scheme is inadequate.

Many survivors have been critical of the scheme, describing it as a cost-saving exercise. I agree with them. Mr. Joe McManus, who spent his early years in St. Patrick's mother and baby institution in Dublin, believes that people are being excluded from the new scheme, or are only eligible for small amounts, in a bid to keep costs down. Recently, he stated that the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and its redress scheme were defined by those reports that went before it. He said that the redress scheme set up following the Ryan report, which detailed the endemic sexual and physical abuse in many industrial schools and reformatories, cost the State in the region of €1.5 billion. He stated: "It's just sad that the most important lesson learned by the State [after the Ryan Report] was not what could be done for the casualties of the process, but how they could limit the financial cost."

When the Minister announced the Bill, I received a number of calls from people who were very distraught. He made the point that the shame was not theirs, but ours. If he doubles down on this Bill, though, the shame will be doubled down on as well.

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