Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 8 May 2024
431. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the reason survivors and former residents from a mother and baby county home institution, who also spent time at St. Joseph's Hospital, Coole, County Westmeath prior to being adopted, are excluded from the payment scheme (details supplied). [20340/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraWhilst I cannot comment on individual cases, I will try to be helpful in general terms. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme provides financial payments and health supports to eligible people who spent time in a Mother and Baby or County Home Institution
It is recognised that there are people who suffered stigma, trauma and abuse in other institutions, and outside of institutions also. However, the institutions covered by the Scheme are those identified by the Commission of Investigation as having a main function of providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children.
Hospitals were not investigated by the Commission of Investigation because they were not institutions that provided ante and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children. For this reason hospitals, such as St. Joseph's Orthopaedic Hospital, Coole, are not included in this Payment Scheme.
In Chapter 2 of the Social History section of the Commission of Investigation report the Commission considered the different types of institutions that existed and whether or not they could be classified as Mother and Baby Homes - www.gov.ie/en/publication/89e43-chapter-2-institutions/. It is noted in this chapter that children did sometimes spend extended periods of time in hospitals.
St. Joseph's Orthopaedic Hospital, Coole, was included in the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.
