Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions (Amendment) Bill 2019 seeks to amend the Redress for Women Resident in Certain Institutions, RWRCI, Act 2015 and the nursing home support scheme.

The Magdalen Restorative Justice Ex-Gratia Scheme was established in 2013, as the Minister stated, to provide women who worked and resided in Magdalen institutions with access to both financial and health supports, including lump sum cash payments, pensions and health and community care supports free of charge.

In 2017, the Office of the Ombudsman published a report following an investigation of the administration of the Magdalen restorative justice scheme. The report made a number of recommendations, including the expansion of the terms of the scheme to include women who worked in Magdalen laundries but resided elsewhere. On foot of these recommendations, the Department of Justice and Equality announced in May 2018 an addendum to the scheme, which commenced in November 2018. The addendum extends the terms of the scheme to women residing in institutions adjoining Magdalen laundries. These developments are positive and welcome.

However, stakeholders such as Justice for Magdalenes Research, JFMR, group which had previously called for an extension of the terms of the scheme, have concerns that the Bill under consideration this evening will, in fact, ensure that health and social care recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke in 2013 is actually provided to all survivors under the Magdalen ex gratiascheme. That is the point that Senator Clifford-Lee raised.

The Government simply seeks to add women who worked as children in Magdalen laundries while registered on the rolls of adjacent institutions to the existing health and social care aspects of the Magdalen ex gratiascheme. Justice for Magdalenes Research group has repeatedly pointed out that the care services currently provided under the RWRCI Act 2015 are not compliant with Mr. Justice Quirke's recommendations.

The problem of healthcare provision to Magdalen survivors has been raised on numerous occasions since the RWRCI Act was enacted.Justice for Magdalenes Research wrote in February 2016 to the national director of primary care at the HSE to ask for clarification on all the ways in which Magdalen survivors’ entitlements under the Act differ from those already available under the standard medical card. No substantive response has been received to date. It is essential to note that survivors of Magdalen laundries signed away all rights of action against the State in good faith, expecting that they would receive all elements of Mr. Justice Quirke's promised scheme. The failure to provide them with the same suite of health and social care services as provided to cardholders in the Health (Amendment) Act seems to be a gross breach of trust and further abuse of a small group of older women who were very wronged and who experienced great human rights violations in the past. I ask the Minister to comment on that.

By background to Mr. Justice Quirke's recommendations, he delivered a report with a full list of the health and social care supports published in appendix G. The survivors who signed away their rights are entitled to them and expected to have full access to them. The Justice for Magdalenes Research group states that the group of women is not getting access to the full list of benefits. The access by Magdalen women to health and social care appears to fall very short in terms of dental, ophthalmic and oral services such as access to psychotherapy for survivors and complementary therapies, including counselling. As far as I am aware the Department of Justice and Equality has not yet established a fund for Magdalen laundry survivors to obtain complementary therapies, as was promised. Magdalen women's access to home care falls short. We do not want to put such women back in institutions. There is a nationwide crisis in home care. Could the Minister comment on the extent of requests by Magdalen laundry survivors for home care? There are also shortfalls in respect of health and community care for survivors abroad.

In the context of the Bill, will the Minister commence a review of the entitlement to services of relevant participants under the headings I have outlined? Will he also assess any differences in entitlements to services in the context of the first recommendation of the 2013 Magdalen commission report, and make a report to both Houses of the Oireachtas of the findings of the review and the conclusions drawn from its findings? Will the Minister first produce a report on the case for including other forms of related institutions in the redress scheme, including psychiatric institutions which had a formalised relationship with the mother and baby homes? Second, will he report on the inclusion of the Bethany Home in the redress scheme? Third, will he report on the steps that would be required in order to complete a project of forensic accounting for the institutions covered by the redress scheme for the period of time under which women were held? The Magdalen women to whom this Bill relates have suffered more than we can ever imagine, through no fault of their own, and those women have been very wronged. As legislators, we must not add insult to injury by poor design of the redress scheme, myopia and amnesia, or even miserliness. I hope the Minister will take on board the points I have raised. I look forward to his response.