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Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senators for their contributions. I will try to address the key issues. Turning to the contribution made by Senator Ruane, I take the point regarding new information and the desire for information of this kind to be accurate. I fully accept what she is saying in this regard. Since the information has come to light about the complexity of the arrangements, especially at many of...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: Regarding the Senator's initial point about timelines, we know from the history that this institutional relationship was often complex. There will be times when there will have to be some back and forth between an applicant and a chief deciding officer. We have designed the scheme to make it as simple as possible. In the significant majority of cases the scheme will deliver that simplicity...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: We are trying to separate out the women who gave birth in maternity facilities and were there solely for the purpose of the use of those maternity facilities. There were other women who gave birth in maternity facilities who were there because they had been admitted into a county home. We are saying that women in the latter category are entitled to be eligible under the scheme. The scheme...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: ..., there is no gagging order attached to this waiver. However, I take the Senator's point. County homes were added to the commission's remit even though the vast majority closed much earlier than mother and baby homes. In many ways they were seen as a successor to county homes. The reason county homes were in the original investigation, and payments sought is because of the particularly...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Report Stage (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: ...of what this scheme does.The Government has never claimed that this scheme provides an answer to every single instance of the mistreatment of pregnant women in our country. It is designed around mother and baby and county home institutions. On Senator Ruane's point, I do not agree that because a county home was on a site, and somebody obtained maternity services in a maternity unit or...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (14 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: As noted in my reply of 28 March, the investigation of burial arrangements in Mother and Baby institutions, including Bessborough, was an important part of the work of the independent Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters. The Commission’s Fifth Interim Report noted that, despite extensive inquiries and searches, the Commission was only able...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (13 Jun 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme will provide financial payments and health supports in the form of an enhanced medical card to eligible persons who spent time in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. The Payment Scheme is designed to be non-adversarial and will not require applicants to bring forward evidence of abuse or harm suffered. It is not possible to...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (31 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senator. He is right that the Report Stage debate is scheduled for four hours at the moment. As the Senator knows, Committee Stage was originally scheduled for three hours and we have been dealing with it for a lot longer. That is absolutely fine because it is important legislation. It is important that we give the amendments that were in order and, in certain circumstances,...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I am not in a position to accept the amendment as presented but that is not to say that I do not understand the intention behind it. That intention of acknowledgement lies behind the wider Government approach to mother and baby and county home institutions, as outlined in the steps we set out in the action plan. Central to that was the apology the Taoiseach made on behalf of the State. It...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: ...Senators for their contributions. I have put it on the record previously, but it is worth reiterating, that when the Taoiseach made his State apology, he recognised how the suffering of people in mother and baby homes and county home institutions was often compounded by racial discrimination. That is recognised. I turn to the specific amendments brought forward by Senator Black....

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: ...Sweeney as Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam. Mr Mac Sweeney will head up the independent Office that has been established under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 to oversee the important and highly sensitive work of ensuring the children’s remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam are recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate...

Written Answers — Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth: Mother and Baby Homes (30 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: As outlined in my previous reply to the Deputy on 30 March 2023, consultation with survivors and relative groups was an important part of the development of the Institutional Burials Act 2022. After taking Office, I visited the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam, Co. Galway, and met with survivors and relatives of those who died while resident there. I carefully considered...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Chair and Senators. I will respond to both amendments Nos. 39 and 40. I am not in a position to accept these amendments, the first of which requires the preparation of reports on the potential to extend eligibility for payments and the enhanced medical card to persons who, as children of mixed race, were removed from an institution covered by this scheme and were placed in...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: This question is a difficult one. It depends. The key objective and reason we included section 50 was to recognise that evidence could come forth concerning an institution. We know a great deal about the operations of the mother and baby homes and the county home institutions because of the commission's report. There are other institutions that we may not know so much about. We spent a...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I disagree with Senator Gavan. I believe I have answered the question both yesterday and last week in respect of the distinction we have made concerning the multifaceted nature of the Government's response to those who were in mother and baby institutions. We recognise that different survivors have different priorities in the context of access to information, the treatment of remains,...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank the Senator. Like Senator Higgins, I have met the Association of Mixed Race Irish and I have heard from them their experiences as former residents of mother and baby and county homes and other institutions, and the impact of the racism they have experienced in their lives. It is important to recognise that, following the publication of the commission of investigation's report, in...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: The discussion here is similar to the one we have had on previous amendments in terms of proposed reports on the possibility of additional payments, and the concern at Government that the approach that has been adopted - the non-adversarial nature of the scheme, and a general payment covering the time spent, the harsh conditions, the emotional abuse and the stigma and mistreatment - is the...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (24 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: These are a set of technical amendments. These amendments all relate to the use of the term "relevant person" and the word "applicant" across a number of sections in the Bill. They are technical in nature and they are being made for clarity and for accuracy. Any person can make an application to the scheme if they believe themselves to be a relevant person, as per the definition provided...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: I thank Senator Higgins and the other Senators for their contributions on this group of amendments. Unfortunately I am not in a position to accept amendments Nos. 33 to 36, inclusive. As we know, these amendments require the preparation of reports on the adequacy of the health support payment and the potential to make supplementary payments in certain conditions. In dealing with the...

Seanad: Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (23 May 2023)

Roderic O'Gorman: Senator Higgins during our previous session asked for clarification on the issue of the waiver, and I agreed to come back to her in writing on that. That clarification continues to be worked on. We will bring it to her. It is being given the consideration it deserves because it is an important issue. We will get that to her when it is ready, which will be soon, I believe. As for the...