Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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510. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will ensure that five facilities (details supplied) are added to the schedule of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022. [8611/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme is designed to provide financial payments and a form of enhanced medical card to people who spent time in a Mother and Baby or County Home Institution.

The 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 decision not to include other institutions or care settings in the Scheme is not intended to disregard or diminish any person’s experience.

The institutions scheduled for inclusion in the Scheme 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 Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill provides for the Minister to include additional institutions in certain circumstances. If it were to come to light that an institution fulfilled a similar function with regard to unmarried mothers and their children as the Mother and Baby Home 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 for the Scheme.