Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have had many emails and phone calls from survivors of mother and baby homes over recent weeks. The survivors are understandably angry about some of the provisions of this Bill. While we in Sinn Féin support the introduction of a redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby and county homes, it must be one that it is inclusive and based on human rights and equality standards.

There are serious concerns in regard to the exclusion of children who were resident in these homes for less than six months. People feel it has been deliberately formulated to exclude approximately 24,000 survivors, mostly consisting of these children who were resident for less than six months, and that the Government’s plan is all about reducing costs and liability. It should be about creating equality, fairness and ensuring all survivors are adequately compensated for any time spent in one of these horrific institutions.

Earlier this week, I spoke to a man who was born in one of these institutions. He spent a short time there before being adopted to a family in the west of Ireland, where he had a happy childhood. He learned in later life that he was adopted. When he went looking for his mother, he found she had died the previous year. He has since connected with her wider family, but feels cheated out of the chance to know his mother. He rightly blames the State, which was complicit in his forced adoption. I also spoke to this man’s son, who told me feels an intergenerational sense of loss, shame and anger.

The consequences of the State’s action and inaction run deep. In 2013, former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, apologised to the Magdalen laundries survivors. A couple of sentences stuck out of his speech. He said the value of any sincere apology is always found in the actions that follow. He went on to say that the last thing survivors need is inadequate apologies from more men in positions of power. They deserve justice, genuine contrition from the church and State and complete and unreserved redress. Those were his words, not mine. That is what they deserve. However, this Bill falls far short. It is a further abuse of the survivors and their families who have already suffered too much.

Will the Minister please show some compassion and widen the scheme, increase the compensation and remove the legal waiver, which the UN has also called for? Give these people what they deserve. They have suffered enough and it is time to act now.

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