Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
490. Deputy Fergus O'Dowd asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the date or timeline for financial payments and a form of enhanced medical card for eligible applicants to be made available and to be in place for the mother and baby institutions payment scheme being agreed by Government and published on 16 November 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6527/22]
View answerI am acutely aware of the sense of urgency in relation to the establishment of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme. I have been given Government approval to bring forward legislation on the basis of the agreed proposals for the Scheme and my officials are working on drafting a General Scheme of a Bill as a matter of a priority.
Once it is complete, I will bring the General Scheme to Government for formal approval. As is standard practice, the General Scheme will then be submitted to the Office of Parliamentary Council to be drafted, in close consultation with officials from my Department. As previously stated, I will seek priority drafting of the Bill when submitting the General Scheme to Government to ensure that the Bill can be introduced to the Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible thereafter, subject also to any pre-legislative scrutiny process which may take place. Once the legislation has been passed by the Oireachtas and the administrative insfrastructure required to deliver the Scheme has been established, the Scheme will be open for applications. I hope that this will be possible by the end of 2022.
