Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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555. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason the mother and baby homes institutions payment scheme has not yet opened to survivors, despite the legislation pertaining to same having been passed by Dáil Éireann twelve months ago; if his Department has undertaken any research to determine how many survivors of mother and baby homes die each year, or how many have died since the passage of this legislation, but before the opening of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10185/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme will open for applications on 20 March, eight months after the passage of its underpinning legislation.

A dedicated webpage is now live at www.gov.ie/paymentscheme, which contains information on how people will be able to apply to the Payment Scheme, and what information applicants will need. Once the Scheme opens, the Payment Scheme Office will process all applications as quickly as possible, with the first payments expected to be made in Quarter 2 of this year.

I am conscious that many potential applicants to the Scheme are elderly. As promised, the Scheme will give priority to applications according to the age of the applicant, and so applications from older people will be prioritised.

For survivors recently deceased, section 37 of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023 provides that the personal representative of a deceased relevant person, who died on or after 13 January 2021, can apply to the Scheme. This was the date of the then Taoiseach's apology to survivors of these institutions on behalf of the State, ultimately launching a comprehensive package of support measures (of which the Payment Scheme is just one) agreed by the Government as part of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.

This 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. Since the enabling legislation was signed into law last July a comprehensive body of work has been undertaken to develop the substantial administrative framework required to deliver a scheme of this size. This work includes:

• the preparation of the necessary regulations which must be in place prior to the Scheme opening;
• making arrangements for the staffing necessary to deliver the Scheme;
• Developing a comprehensive training programme for all staff involved in the Scheme;
• Developing postal and online application systems;
• Developing the case management IT infrastructure for the Scheme;
• Preparing for a substantive public awareness campaign to be delivered in Ireland and overseas. To this end, a recent stakeholder engagement process for the Payment Scheme has concluded with representatives reviewing some of the application and information materials for the Scheme.