Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Senator mentioned, I am making this statement on behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman. I thank the Senator for raising the issue today, and I am happy to provide an update on the progress with regard to the delivery of this scheme to survivors and former residents.

As colleagues will be aware, the mother and baby institutions payment scheme will provide financial payments and health supports to eligible people in recognition of the circumstances they experienced in a mother and baby or county home institution. At an anticipated cost of €800 million, it is expected that 34,000 people will be eligible for financial payments under the scheme and 19,000 eligible for health supports. As such, it will be the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the State.

The scheme is also the centrepiece of the Government’s Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. The scheme, as the Senator mentioned, is underpinned by legislation, with the President signing the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act into law in July of this year. This Act allows for the establishment of an executive office in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to administer the scheme and the appointment of the chief deciding officer to head up that office. It also allows for the making of the necessary regulations which must be in place prior to the scheme opening and provides a lawful basis for access to information and records, which are essential for the processing of applications.

The Government, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman and I are acutely aware of the sense of urgency, to which the Senator alluded, surrounding the opening of the scheme. Intensive work is under way to establish the infrastructure needed to deliver the scheme and I will provide some detail on that now. I understand a number of months will be needed to conclude this work and open the scheme for applications.

As per the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023, the scheme will be administered by an executive office established within the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Following careful consideration of a number of important factors, including the need to open the scheme as soon as possible and the ability to be responsive and scale up and down to meet scheme demand, a blended operating model is being developed. This will provide for the chief deciding officer, appointed under the Act, to be supported by a core executive office based in the Department and also by an experienced third party. To this end, the Department is currently concluding a tendering process with a preferred bidder that has been identified following a procurement process.

All staff in the executive office, as well as the third party support team, will operate under the direction and supervision of the chief deciding officer and a comprehensive training programme for all staff involved in the scheme is being developed.

I understand that work is also under way on the development of an online application system. The Department recently made a call to survivors and former residents who may be interested in being part of a stakeholder reference group to provide feedback on the draft application materials for the payment scheme and I understand a very positive response was received.

An information awareness campaign will take place in Ireland and abroad in advance of the scheme opening. Once the scheme is open, applicants will be supported throughout the process with information and advice if they need it.

I stress that the scheme has been designed to be straightforward and non-adversarial. It will not require applicants to bring forward evidence of abuse or harm. In relation to an applicant's time in an institution, all an applicant to the scheme will need to tell the executive office is the name of the institution or institutions the applicant spent time in and the dates the applicant was there or approximate dates, if known. The executive office will then be able to undertake searches of institutional records.

We are conscious that despite this, some survivors may still find it difficult to engage with the scheme. I would like to take this opportunity to remind all that the Government's action plan response includes the provision of counselling support, through the national counselling service in the HSE, free of charge, to all survivors and former residents.