Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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656. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to outline all efforts to advertise the mother and baby institutions payment scheme to date, in what countries beyond the UK, the budget committed to such efforts, the nature of such advertisements, that is, via social media, radio, print media, dissemination of information via Irish cultural-heritage centres, advertisements at bus shelters and so on, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13504/25]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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657. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to outline specific efforts to advertise the mother and baby institutions payment scheme in the United States, in what States and or cities, the budget committed to such efforts, and the nature of all such advertisements that is, social media, radio, print media, dissemination of information via Irish cultural/heritage centres, advertisements at bus-shelters and so on, in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13505/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 656 and 657 together.

The Payment Scheme is an important measure in the Government’s Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. The Interdepartmental Group, that advised the Government on the design of the Scheme, estimated the cost of "Communication and Publicity" for a scheme of this scale at €2.75 million over its full lifetime.

The campaign to promote the Scheme is operating on a phased basis in Ireland and in jurisdictions overseas that have a significant Irish diaspora. It includes press releases, social media posts, briefings with stakeholders, visits to Britain to meet with groups supporting applicants, and a paid, phased advertising campaign with a spend to date of almost €1.8 million across two phases.

The two phases of paid advertising to date have run across Ireland, the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. They consisted of radio, print, and online advertising, along with an out-of-home poster campaign (e.g. post-offices, community centres, libraries).

With regards to online advertising, this consisted of targeted social media ads across the meta platform, digital display ads on sites targeted at the Irish diaspora, and a paid search campaign. The search campaign in ongoing across all markets and reaches those who search for specific terms related to the Payment Scheme.

In the second phase which ran from October to December 2024, there was a particular focus on improving reach to potential applicants abroad, including Great Britain, with the addition of static advertising on public transport including on all London bus routes and tube lines and press campaigns in the US, Canada and Australia.

The following table provides additional detail requested:

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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658. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will instruct the Adoption Authority of Ireland to contact all registrants on the national adoption contact preference register, since its inception in 2005, to provide information about the mother and baby institutions payment scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13506/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister, it would not be appropriate for me to instruct the Adoption Authority of Ireland to use the Contact Preference Register to issue correspondence with information about the Mother and Baby Home Payment Scheme.

The Birth Information and Tracing Act was signed into law on 30 June 2022. The Act provides for the release of birth, early life, care, and medical information to persons who were adopted, boarded out or nursed out, subject to an illegal birth registration, or resided in a mother and baby home or county home as a child, known in the legislation as a relevant person. A statutory Contact Preference Register was established under the Act in July 2022 to enable people to register their wishes in relation to contact with family and to provide contact details, other information and items for sharing with specified family members. (In keeping with the requirement in Section 42 (3) of the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022, the National Adoption Contact Preference Register, to which you refer, was deleted in November 2022, with all entries being transferred to the new statutory Contract Preference Register.)

It is important to note that the Contact Preference Register is available to all categories of relevant persons listed under the 2022 Act, and not just to those who spent time in a mother and baby home. Birth relatives – including parents, siblings, uncles and aunts – and adoptive parents are also eligible to state their contact preferences on the Register. Contacting all of those on the Contact Preference Register with information about the Mother and Baby Home Payment Scheme would cause a number of people to receive unsolicited contact about a scheme for which they would not be eligible.

Furthermore, the Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 provides that any entry in the Contact Preference Register is made with the consent of the person registering for the purpose of enabling the Adoption Authority of Ireland to perform its functions under Part 6 of the Act. Applicants must be advised of this legal basis for the processing of their personal data before an entry is made on the Contact Preference Register.

The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023 provides financial payments and health supports to eligible persons in recognition of the circumstances experienced while resident in mother and baby and county home institutions in Ireland. The issuing of communications about the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023 to people on the Contact Preference Register would constitute ‘further processing’ under GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and is thus prohibited. Further processing is only provided for in case of national security/defence, criminal investigations/prosecutions, or legal proceedings under Sections 41 and 47 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023, it is the Chief Deciding Officer of the scheme, who performs her functions independently of the Minister, who is mandated to make efforts relating to raising awareness of the scheme among the public. To date, two media campaigns have been undertaken, in April and November 2024 to raise public awareness about the Mother and Baby Payment Scheme both in Ireland and abroad. There is also an information booklet and website available to people who are seeking information about the payment scheme. Further details are available at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/2938d-the-mother-and-baby-institutions-payment-scheme/

My Department also maintains a substantial mailing list of all those who wish to be kept informed on implementation of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. Regular information updates, including in relation to the Payment Scheme, are issued to this mailing list.