Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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525. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if legislation will be brought forward to amend the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 to provide for a redress function to incorporate the survivors of mother and baby homes. [4292/19]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I have no plans to bring forward legislation to amend the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002. As the Deputy will be aware, my colleague the Minister for Education and Skills is responsible for this legislation and related arrangements. The redress scheme established under this act has not been extended to any additional institutions since 2005.

I understand that when the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was published in 2009 there were a number of calls for the redress scheme to be extended to include additional institutions, including some mother and baby homes. These calls have been reviewed on a number of occasions by previous Governments with no change in the institutions covered by the scheme.

In 2016 the Second Interim Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes made a recommendation that the decision to exclude unaccompanied children who were resident in mother and baby homes from the Residential Institutions Redress Act should be re-examined by Government.

In examining this matter the Government decided it would not be appropriate to consider any such arrangements in advance of the findings and conclusions of the Commission on relevant matters. When the Commission submits its final reports, its conclusions on all matters regarding the treatment of former residents of Mother and Baby Homes will be taken into careful consideration when determining the State's response.

In the interim, the Government has agreed to consider supports and services to respond to the identified health and well-being needs of former residents. In July of last year I established the Collaborative Forum, as a progressive response to the theme of “nothing about us without us” which emerged from my consultations with former residents of these institutions. This innovative approach has empowered former residents to actively contribute to the Government's deliberations on matters of concern to them and their families.

The Forum has recently submitted its first report to me and I will be bringing my recommendations to Government in the coming weeks.