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

With respect to the ambit of the scheme, I believe I did answer the Senator's question in terms of setting out where the scheme lies in terms of the wider response, but if I can try to be more specific for the Senator, as we know, when the commission reported, it set out certain criteria that it regarded would qualify former residents for a form of redress. The commission was not asked specifically to advise on that point but it brought forward certain proposals. These set out a range of potential criteria. It made distinctions between whether a child was accompanied or unaccompanied within a particular institution. It made a broad statement that persons who entered an institution after 1974 probably should not receive a payment in light of the fact of the existence of the separated or single mother's payment that was brought in in that particular year.

When the Government approved the publication of the commission's report and approved the forming of an interdepartmental group to look at the issue of redress, the Government said it would be not be bound by those particular recommendations. The interdepartmental group undertook a detailed process and brought forward a set of proposals that stated that for persons who had spent more than six months within an institution, there would be a series of payments and those persons would be also entitled to avail of an enhanced medical card.After negotiations that took place in the Government, a decision was made that all mothers, irrespective of time spent in an institution, would receive access to a payment which significantly increased the ambit of the scheme from what the interdepartmental group recommended, which was between approximately 19,000 and 34,000 recipients. That is to recognise the impact of the time spent by mothers in these institutions at the time and the significant stigma they experienced. On that basis, we are bringing forward this set of proposals.