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

I thank the Deputy. The commission of investigation into mother and baby institutions made significant findings regarding the failings of the State and religious bodies, which together ran mother and baby and county home institutions. The Government believes all relevant parties have a collective responsibility to respond to the legacy of these institutions. As the Deputy knows, we have an action plan setting out 22 actions, one of which is the institutional payment scheme.

In May 2023, the Government approved my proposal to appoint Ms Sheila Nunan to act on my behalf in leading negotiations with religious bodies that had a historical involvement with mother and baby institutions. This is with a view to securing a financial contribution towards the cost of the payment scheme and it followed on from a series of meetings that I held with the bodies. My Department officials and I are committed to supporting Ms Nunan in her work. As part of this, the Department has procured financial experts to support Ms Nunan in her negotiations. This expertise from EY is in place since 15 November of last year and is ongoing. The EY task is to provide an independent financial assessment of the resources of each organisation involved. While I cannot specify a date on which this process will conclude, I anticipate that it will conclude within the coming months. I have not received a interim report and these negotiations, while ongoing, are being treated as confidential. A full report will be provided to the Government once the negotiations are concluded.

On the institutional payment scheme itself, I am sure the Deputy will be interested to know that 1,900 completed applications have been received by the independent office so far. Some 600 of those are now at determination stage, and I understand the first determinations have been issued to applicants already.

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