Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

These amendments - I am speaking to amendment No. 50 in particular - seek to ensure applications are processed in a timely manner. The current wording is too ambiguous and allows for too much scope. Survivors have waited years for any form of justice, and it is essential those who are eligible receive their redress as soon as possible. The only way this is possible is by adding this limit. I have no faith this system will be survivor centred, as with other schemes supposedly to help survivors. This would be bureaucratic and drawn out. We see this already with the immoral delays in people accessing their birth information under the Birth Information and Tracing Act. State bodies instantly interpreted the Act to allow them the maximum time to reply and then cite the exceptional range permitted. If we are to learn from that experience, it is important to add this limit. These amendments are especially important in the context of the Government's refusal to grant interim payments as requested by survivors. The OAK report states that the most commonly held view in respect of financial recognition was that an immediate interim ex gratiacommon experience payment should be made as urgently as possible. The least the Government should do, after repeatedly ignoring this point, is ensure the timely processing of applications is provided for in the legislation. Also, it should be noted this refers to 28 days in total. That is four weeks, not 28 working days.

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