Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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1920. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to review the list of institutions covered by the payment scheme under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023; and to include a home (details supplied). [20536/25]

Erin McGreehan (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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1921. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to outline the rationale for the omission of institutions that cared for babies born in mother and baby homes from the payment scheme under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023. [20537/25]

Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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1928. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth her plans to amend the mother and baby homes redress scheme to include more institutions and Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock, in particular. [20567/25]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1920, 1921 and 1928 together.

The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme provides payments and health benefits to people who spent time in any of the Mother and Baby or County Home Institutions that were identified by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation as having a main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children. The institutions covered by the Payment Scheme are set out in Schedule 1 to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023.

Chapter 2 of the Social History section of the Commission of Investigation report -www.gov.ie/en/publication/89e43-chapter-2-institutions/ - details the different types of institutions that existed and whether they could be considered Mother and Baby Institutions. Both St Joseph's Baby Home, Stamullen and Linden Convalescent Home, Blackrock are listed as residential children's homes. They did not provide ante and post-natal facilities, and therefore are not included in the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.

The Government recognises that there are people who suffered stigma, trauma and abuse in other institutions. If it were to come to light that an institution, in which the State had a regulatory or inspection function, fulfilled a similar function with regard to single women and their children as those included in the Payment Scheme, section 49 of the Act provides that the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, may insert an additional institution into the Schedule.

It is important to emphasise that the Payment Scheme is just one element of the Government’s response to the country’s complex legacy of Mother and Baby Institutions. Of the seven major commitments set out in the Government Action Plan for Survivors, six are now delivered and in place, while the seventh is well underway. Key actions include access to birth information, the services of the Special Advocate and counselling support, all already in place, as well as the ongoing development of a National Centre for Research and Remembrance.