Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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1352. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the details of any engagement he has had with survivors’ groups since the announcement of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme; if his Department keeps a record of the number of former residents of mother and baby institutions, and in particular the number who have passed away since the announcement of the payment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56813/23]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme will be the largest scheme of its type in the history of the State with an anticipated 34,000 people eligible for its benefits. Given its scale and significance the Scheme has been placed on a statutory footing and enabling legislation was signed into law last July. A comprehensive body of work has been underway to develop the substantial administrative framework required to deliver a scheme of this size.

I am acutely aware of the urgency in opening the Scheme and I am very conscious that many potential applicants to the Scheme are elderly. In that regard I made provision in the underpinning legislation for the Scheme that priority may be given to an application depending on the applicant’s circumstances, including their age and their health.

In the legislation I also provided for the personal representative of a deceased eligible person to make applications for a financial payment where the person died on or after the date of An Taoiseach’s apology to survivors on 13th January 2021.

My Department and I communicate directly and regularly with some 1,200 survivors and representatives who have asked to join our mailing list and we operate a helpline to assist callers with queries. We also engage directly with representative groups both at home and abroad and will launch a public information campaign to publicise the Scheme when it opens. A recent stakeholder engagement process for the Payment Scheme has just concluded with representatives reviewing some of the application and information materials of the proposed Scheme. Over and above these engagement processes and the Department's responsibility to hold the archive of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, it does not hold any other current record of all former residents of Mother and Baby Institutions.