Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the announcement today that the mother and baby institutions payment scheme will finally open on 20 March and that the Government expects payments to be paid out in the second quarter. I welcome it, albeit with a delayed start of that application.

Related to that will the Minister please clarify where he is in relation to the special mediator, Ms Sheila Nunan, who was appointed in May of last year around the negotiations with the religious orders? Is a report ready in relation to that? Will the money that is, hopefully, handed over be used to balance the scheme, which has set an arbitrary exclusion of any baby under six months or any infant, which is totally unacceptable? There is a chance now to remedy that unjust system with the conclusion of the negotiations with the religious orders.

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