Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 9 March 2022
152. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the progress in bringing forward legislation for redress of victims of the mother and baby homes; when this legislation will come before Dáil Éireann; if interim payments will be available for survivors who may be in poor health; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13212/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am acutely aware of the sense of urgency surrounding the establishment of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme and my officials are working on drafting a General Scheme of a Bill to establish the Scheme 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.
My focus is on delivering the Scheme itself as quickly as possible. Once the Scheme is open for applications, it is intended that priority will be given to those who are elderly, and any other categories deemed appropriate for prioritisation. As the design of the scheme is predicated on a single payment based on evidence of residency, it is not clear how any interim arrangement could be designed more quickly than the scheme itself. This is because the same administrative infrastructure must be established to receive applications and make payments on this scale, regardless of whether this would be done by way of interim arrangement or through the scheme itself. Similarly, a legislative basis is needed to govern access to records confirming residency and to provide for eligibility for an enhanced medical card, as well as to ensure that any payments received will be disregarded for the purposes of establishing social welfare entitlements or tax liabilities.
Once the legislation has been passed by the Oireachtas and the administrative infrastructure 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.
