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

I am not in a position to accept the amendment. We had some discussion of this on Committee Stage. The Bill provides for the establishment of the office of the chief deciding officer of the mother and baby institution payment scheme within my Department. That office will be overseen by a chief deciding officer who will perform the functions set out under section 9 of the Bill.

In reference to Deputy Connolly's point, section 9 provides that the chief deciding officer will be independent in the performance of these functions. That independence is set out clearly in the legislation. The chief deciding officer will be assigned staff to support the administration of the scheme. The responsibility for this function lies with the Minister.

Work in regard to the recruitment of the staff for the executive office is already under way as it is necessary in order to ensure that the necessary resources are in place and staff are fully trained prior to the launch of the scheme. As discussed, the scheme is intended to be non-adversarial in nature and will not require the applicants to bring forward evidence of abuse suffered. All staff involved in administering the scheme will be trained in trauma-informed approaches and the relevant communication processes. A training-needs analysis of members of this office has already been completed. It identified a range of necessary training modules that staff working in this office will need including issues to do with the equality delivery, in terms of call handling and also in terms of trauma-informed care, for which there will be an explicit module. There will also be an explicit module looking at the historical and cultural background to mother and baby and county home institutions. This range of training is being prepared for the staff who will work in the chief deciding officer's office.

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