The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme, opening on March 20th, will be the largest scheme of its type in the history of the State with an anticipated 34,000 people eligible for its benefits.
I am conscious that many potential applicants to the Scheme are elderly. As promised, the Scheme will, generally speaking, prioritise applications according to the age of the applicant, and so applications from older people will be prioritised. The Case Management System that has been developed to underpin the administration of the Scheme will automatically carry out prioritisation based on the age of applicants. All the applicant has to do is provide their date of birth and the system will sequence accordingly.
In relation to the question posed by the Deputy regarding eligibility if someone had previously received redress for time spent in a mother and baby home as a person under the age of 18, but not for the time spent in a mother and baby home as an adult, I would see no reason why, on the face of it, the person would not be eligible to apply in relation to their time spent as an adult.
A dedicated webpage is now live at www.gov.ie/paymentscheme, which contains information on how people will be able to apply to the Payment Scheme, and what information applicants will need. Once the Scheme opens, the Payment Scheme Office will process all applications as quickly as possible, with the first payments expected to be made in Quarter 2 of this year.
