Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Dáil is in the final stages of legislating for the redress scheme for the survivors of the mother and baby homes. There is widespread criticism of this scheme from Opposition, legal and human rights experts and, most importantly of all, from the survivors. The main criticism stems from the exclusion of survivors who have spent less than six months in these institutions. That means the trauma of a baby who was forcibly removed from his or her mother is not being acknowledged by this scheme. That accounts for approximately 40% of survivors. Will the Tánaiste explain why the six-month rule was put in place? Does he believe that whatever happens to a baby under six months old does not matter, or that a person does not feel the trauma of what happened when he or she was less than six months old?

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