18-05-2025
Just over €65m paid out in mother and baby home redress scheme
Just over €65m has been so far paid out under the mother and baby home redress scheme.
However, renewed calls have been made to end the "arbitrary exclusion" from the scheme of people who spent less than six months in a home as well as those who were in institutions not named in the final report.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik has also hit out at the majority of religious orders who were involved in running mother and baby homes who have refused to pay into the scheme.
Only two of eight religious bodies linked to mother and baby homes have offered to contribute to a survivor redress scheme despite lengthy negotiations.
The Sisters of Bon Secours offered €12.97m, a sum deemed as meaningful and accepted by the Government.
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul proposed contributing a building to the scheme and this offer is being considered by the Government.
A third religious body — the Sisters of St John of God — declined to contribute to the scheme but offered a conditional donation of €75,000 to be used for a charitable purpose associated with mother and baby home survivors.
No offer from five religious bodies
The remaining five bodies — the Congregation of Lady of the Good Shepherd; the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy; the Legion of Mary; and the Church of Ireland — made no offer.
'Sadly, many culpable religious orders refuse to pay redress or even acknowledge wrongdoing," Ms Bacik said.
"Urgently, the Government must enact Labour's Civil Liability (Child Sexual Abuse Proceedings Unincorporated Bodies of Persons) Bill 2024.
"This Bill would enable the State to compel religious orders to pay redress to survivors of abuse perpetrated within or by religious-run institutions, and also to survivors of mother and baby homes.
"The bill, which was published last September, aims to provide a remedy for Government to address the legal obstruction tactics so routinely deployed by religious orders and their associated lay-run trusts.
"These tactics are used to avoid having to pay redress to those who have endured abuse in institutions controlled by such orders.
'We have a dark and shameful past of institutional abuse in Ireland."
For many decades, we have seen religious orders and institutions engaged in the covering up of this tragic history, with resulting injustice to survivors.
"If we've learned anything as a nation, it is that accountability must be provided for survivors and victims of abuse," she said.
Figures provided to Ms Bacik show that more than 6,460 applications have been made to the scheme, which opened in March 2024.
Some 5,670 notices of determination have issued to applicants, over 81% of which contain an offer of benefits under the scheme.
Applicants then have six months to consider their offer, before they need to respond to the Payment Office.
Almost 5,000 payments are either processed and completed or in the process of being made and the total amount which has been paid out under the redress scheme to date is over €65m.
