Stormont urged to remove ‘cruel clause' in mother and baby homes Bill
Campaigners, including survivors of the homes run by the Catholic Church, religious orders, some Protestant denominations as well as the state, and relatives, gathered at Parliament Buildings on Monday.
More than 14,000 women and girls are thought to have passed through the institutions, with many found to have been mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up their children for adoption.
The Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill was introduced at the Assembly earlier this year, and is being scrutinised by the Executive Office Committee.
The Bill is to establish a statutory public inquiry and a statutory redress scheme, with a payment of £10,000 to be made to eligible claimants, and a £2,000 payment to eligible family members on behalf of a loved one who has died since September 29 2011.
Adele Johnston, of Birthmothers and their Children for Justice NI, described the 2011 cut-off date as 'cruel'.
'On one hand we are pleased we have finally got as far as the legislation being written but there needs to be a lot of work done to make it acceptable to victims and survivors,' she said.
'There are a lot of aspects that need to be discussed and hopefully amended.
'We are quite hopeful going forward, but it all depends on their decisions at the end of the day.
'It's been a long, long campaign, and a long, hard campaign, jumping through hoops, meeting ministers, baring our souls to the public. It's not easy.
'But with one cruel clause in the Bill, they have written out thousands of women, girls and their children.
'The 2011 date for posthumous claims is utterly unacceptable and we will continue to fight that.'
Roisin and Lisa Morris were among those who attended Stormont on Monday.
Their mother Madeline Morris was sent to the Marianville Mother and Baby Home on the Ormeau Road in south Belfast when she was 18, after becoming pregnant, and forced to give her baby up for adoption.
Mrs Morris died in 1992, and the Bill as it is currently written will not recognise her.
'That's why we're here today,' Roisin Morris said, adding that they had not found out what happened to their mother until her first child came searching for her last year.
Lisa Morris said: 'As things stand at the minute, our mummy won't be recognised, and it's very unfair, so we're going to be her voice.'
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