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

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. As I said previously, I fully understand there are survivors, including those joining us today, who are not happy with the determinations made regarding the ambit of this scheme.

The Government has made the point that during the engagement we had, when we spoke to survivors, which was referenced by Deputies, and when they gave their accounts of what they wanted to see in terms of the State's response, as I said previously, each person's account and recognition of what they wanted to see the State do was different. Many of them, especially those who spent shorter times in these institutions, placed their focus on the issue of information and the fact that they were denied their information for such a long period. In response to that, the State passed the Birth Information and Tracing Act. Deputy Cairns is correct. We are not seeking to clap ourselves on the back for the passage of that legislation. It should have been passed many years ago. However, it is in operation now and is providing people with their information.

We believe that designing a scheme that does not require people to come forward or to give evidence of the abuse they suffered, but is designed on the basis of the length of time they spent in a particular institution - Deputy Boyd Barrett criticised the Bill for the list of times provided for in it - is the way to provide a scheme that will give people access to redress. It does not require them to provide information and does not require the cross-examination we have seen in previous redress schemes.

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