Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The amendment calls on the State to provide a statement recognising survivors who are applicants to the scheme and who have provided testimony about their life experiences in the institutions. Survivors have been silent for far too long. We urge that, under the scheme, their stories be shared. They are very powerful and need to be shared and, most importantly, to be recognised. The redress scheme is supposed to be the main avenue for their experiences to be recognised. Of course, survivors will submit testimonies about their experiences during the application process. I am horrified at the thought of survivors detailing their experiences and these simply being ignored or not responded to by the Government. The amendment is even more urgent given the total lack of financial recognition under the scheme for any specific experience of harm within the institutions. The only things recognised by this scheme are days spent in the institution and the work done. No other experiences, such as forced family separation, vaccine trials or racial abuse, are recognised. At the very least, these survivors deserve a formal reply and acknowledgement of what they submit during the application process. This is the absolute bare minimum. It is a very small form of recognition and I genuinely cannot understand why it is being refused by the Government. Putting political views aside, from a human perspective, it is genuinely beyond me why we cannot do the bare minimum and recognise what people went through in the institutions. I know the Minister's heart is in the right place in respect of the mother and baby homes. I suggest that he does the right thing and recognises people's experiences.