Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I referred the General Scheme of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth at the end of March for pre-legislative scrutiny. I received the Committee's report on the 12th July and I am very grateful to the members for giving the draft legislation their careful attention. The Committee’s recommendations have been carefully considered in the course of drafting the Bill.

The Scheme is designed to provide payments and an Enhanced Medical Card to people who spent time in one or more of the 14 Mother and Baby Institutions or 29 County Home Institutions which were identified by the Commission of Investigation as having a main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to unmarried mothers and their children.

The decision not to include other institutions or care settings in the Scheme is not intended to disregard or diminish any person’s experience and Government recognises that there are people who suffered stigma, trauma and abuse in other institutions, and outside of institutions, who will not qualify for this Scheme.

The General Scheme of the Bill provides for the Minister to include additional institutions. If it were to come to light that an institution fulfilled a similar function with regard to unmarried mothers and their children as the 14 Mother and Baby Institutions, and that the State had a regulatory or inspection function, then there will be a mechanism to add such an institution to the Schedule of eligible institutions.