Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome Ms Sheila O'Byrne and all of the people in the Public Gallery. I am glad that we are finally debating this Bill. We know we have needed it for a long time. Redress is one of the ways in which we are dealing with the mother and baby home legacy. We know mother and baby homes represent a dark chapter in our history. Thousands of women and children were subjected to unimaginable suffering and cruelty. Those so-called homes were there to provide care and support for unwed mothers and their babies. However, over time it was discovered that these institutions were the absolute antithesis of that. They were not places of shelter. Mothers were subjected to extreme isolation, neglect and abuse and their children were sent away for forced adoption.Many of those children were boarded out and, like Senator Boyhan, were subjected to vaccine trials and sent to industrial schools. They were subjected to severe and traumatic conditions. The publication of the report on the mother and baby homes in January 2021 was a watershed moment that brought to light the horrors that occurred in these institutions. It was a real moment of reckoning. Not all of us agreed with some of the conclusions but, as a body of work, it has to be looked at as that. It was not the end of the story. We all know of and have heard the testimony of women and of the adoptees about their times in these places. We are on a path to dealing with this horrific past. This Bill is an important step towards providing redress for survivors, to ensuring that those atrocities are never repeated, for the world to learn about the atrocities and for us to stand up and to take account of what this country did unto women and children. Very importantly, it is to enable the survivors to apply for that financial compensation. It is a matter of access to health and educational supports, as well as about that apology. The Bill takes steps to address the issue and to provide some form of compensation for those who have been affected by this desperate traumatic past.

The mother and baby home redress scheme legislation has been established to provide that compensation. No money or resources could ever adequately compensate - and we all agree with that - those who were harmed by the actions of these institutions. It is important to acknowledge the damage that was inflicted upon those who will never come back from that. That trauma will live on. Its legacy goes through many generations. The scheme is a crucial step towards acknowledging that harm.

It is essential that we educate ourselves and the public about the experience of those who have been impacted in order that we all understand why, what occurred and what we can do to support the survivors. The scheme, which was published in October 2022, was passed in February. It is a key commitment in the Government's action plan for survivors and former residents. It provides a holistic response to those pressing needs of survivors of institutions, including financial payments and health supports in the form of an enhanced medical card to eligible mother and baby and county home institutions survivors. The scheme also recognises the time spent in harsh conditions, emotional abuse and all other forms of mistreatment, as well as the stigma, trauma and experience of people while they were residents in these institutions. Financial payments will be made to an estimated 34,000 people. An enhanced medical card will be provided to 19,000 people. It will be provided at a cost of €800 million. While this is a huge amount of money and while it is a huge task, each one of those women is important and they are worthy of every single penny.

I also welcome what the Minister spoke about earlier, which was the special advocate for survivors. The financial package is only one part. There are many survivors the length and breadth of this country who are suffering in terrible housing conditions with terrible health conditions and who are alone. The tragedy of that is that so many of them die alone.

In regards to this financial package, I challenge the Minister and the Department to look at those organisations that are funded to support the survivors to make sure they look out for the survivors who have suffered this terrible trauma. Sadly, I have known of survivors who have died and who have no one to miss them. When they die alone in their homes, no one is there to raise an alarm. Sadly, many of these are deceased and then weeks, months or years later, they are found with no one to bury them. This special advocate needs to be there to support the applicants through everything, including through the application process. There also needs to be a body of supports in place to support the people who receive the money. Many of these people are highly vulnerable and financial coercion could happen. From the point they receive the money, there has to be a follow-through.

The mother and baby homes legislation is much needed. We know we can never fully compensate but we have to look at the survivors. Many of them are so vulnerable. I speak with them and they will never come forward publicly. I hear from them that they hear about people dying alone. If there is justice, if there is hope and if we as a country are to mind these people, we will have their applications and will know if they were successful. We will know who they are and where they are. Let us make sure that all those survivors who need our help, those vulnerable people, are highlighted as being vulnerable and are looked after through their last years. We should contemplate this legislation but there is an urgency that we pass this legislation and get those applications in because survivors are dying every single week and month. That redress is about an acknowledgement of their pain, their suffering and their loss. It is important that we follow through as quickly as possible to make sure that these women and children who are dealing with the trauma get the services, the care and the follow-through from the State, because the State neglected them in their younger years. Let us mind them through their elder years and through that suffering.

As there are so many survivors and institutions, I am glad there is not just a special advocate for mother and baby homes, but for all institutions. I have spoken with survivors of industrial schools and they are afraid to go into hospital because the hospital symbolises an institution. They do not go to places because of this symbol. They think, "If I go in there, I will never get out again". They cannot go back to that trauma. We have to look after them. We cannot have a survivor dying alone. We cannot have a survivor with no one to miss them and no one to bury them. If we did not give them dignity in life, we need to give them dignity. This also ties into our work on the Institutional Burials Act. We did not give them dignity in life but we will give them dignity and respect in death. We will start to bring that legacy for the survivors and make sure they are all looked after. That is my main ask today.

I know there are questions and on Committee Stage we will thrash out a lot of those issues and questions in relation to the Bill. However, today, I welcome that we are working on this Bill, that we will get this through the Stages in this House and that we will get the financial support to the women, to the people who really need it; to the mammies. I am thinking of the mammies who are listening in today. They are heartbroken and they are thinking of their babies, who they lost. I am thinking of Sheila, who is present today, who nursed babies, who looked after them and who lost them. That is who we need to look after. I am very glad we are at this point. I wish we could do much more. In reality, I would love to give them everything. We are giving a lot of help but I think we need to mind, to care, to acknowledge that pain and to make sure that no one is left out.