Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On Monday afternoon, the Minister received from Ms Nunan, the negotiator who was appointed, her report on negotiations with religious organisations associated with the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. The Minister will have to review that report and come back to Government in relation to it.

The Government has not gone cap in hand to anyone. The Government took its own decisions in respect of a redress scheme for those in mother and baby homes. It is quite a substantial scheme, which will total up to €800 million or more. I accept not everyone felt that was enough, but it was a first substantive response by the State in respect of mother and baby homes. There have been other responses in respect of industrial schools and Magdalen laundries which have been extensive. Each of these involved different dimensions.

On mother and baby institutions, we will assess the report and see where we go next. We cannot simply go in and raid premises. I am sure the Deputy appreciates there have to be processes regarding the legality of whatever the Government does. Suffice to say that the Government did not wait around for religious orders.

In the context of the industrial schools, I recall that the Government at that time was attacked for having a redress scheme and not having a substantive contribution from the religious orders in advance of doing that. The Deputy is correct to say religious orders will utilise lawyers and legal mechanisms to frustrate what the Government is attempting to do. The Government of the day, like the current Administration, focused on the survivors and victims of these institutions. If we had been waiting around for a legal process to try to garner from orders the necessary resources in order to have a redress scheme, we would never have had one. That is the position, unfortunately. Either way, the Government will be criticised and condemned. On balance, however, in trying to respond to survivors and victims, it is better that the State develops independently its redress schemes and endeavours to seeks returns from the religious orders. We will see what we can do and what options are open to us. I have not read or seen the report. I just read a report about it in the media this morning. There are options we can follow in getting contributions from the religious orders.

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