Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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564. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the form of redress that is available to former residents of an orphanage (details supplied) given reports of abuse and its exclusion from the mother and baby homes redress scheme (details supplied); whether the confessional character of the orphanage has played a role in the State's attitude towards liability to victims there, as it was a Protestant institution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10250/24]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The Residential Institutions Redress Scheme was a scheme operated by the Department of Education and I cannot comment on that scheme or its scope.

My department is responsible for delivery of the comprehensive package of support measures agreed by the Government as part of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.

A cornerstone of this Action Plan is the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme - due to open on March 20th - which will provide financial payments and a form of enhanced medical card for people who spent time as mothers or children in Mother and Baby or County Home Institutions.

It is recognised that there are people who suffered stigma, trauma and abuse in other institutions, and outside of institutions also. However, the institutions covered by the Scheme are those identified by the Commission of Investigation as having a main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children. Westbank Orphanage is, therefore, not included in the Scheme as it does not meet those criteria.

Other important measures contained in the Action Plan response include my appointment last month of a Special Advocate for Survivors, access to birth information provided through the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, the intervention at the site of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Institution and the establishment of a National Centre for Research and Remembrance on the site of the former Magdalen Laundry on Sean McDermott Street.

The Deputy may be aware that there are also processes ongoing in Northern Ireland to respond to these legacy issues.