Mother and baby home redress scheme will not open to applicants until next year

Children's Minister Roderick O'Gorman could not say if the scheme will open early next year or whether it will be later in 2022. Picture: Sam Boal

Applications to the mother and baby home redress scheme will not open until next year, the Children's Minister has confirmed.

Minister Roderic O'Gorman had intended to have a scheme ready to go to Cabinet last month, however, this has been delayed partly down to a large number of submissions from the public during the consultation process.

Mr O'Gorman now hopes to get a report from the interdepartmental group working on the redress scheme in the next "two to three weeks" and will have a memo to Cabinet before July when the Dáil breaks for the summer.

"I would hope people would be able to apply for it next year. I want to get it to Cabinet first and I will have a better sense at that stage," Mr O'Gorman said.

However, he could not say if the scheme will open early next year or whether it will be later in 2022.

Mr O'Gorman has strongly indicated that he will allow those who were resident in mother and baby homes after 1974 access to the redress scheme, despite a recommendation by the commission not to do so.

"We were very clear that we weren't being bound by the recommendations.

"I have very much heard the concern, particularly about the 1974 cut-off date. When the Government makes its decision on what the final breadth of the redress scheme will be we will be very cognisant of the entire report, and particularly the chapter on the confidential committee. That is the chapter that stands out to me."

Meanwhile, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has called on the commission to accept an invite to come before the Oireachtas Children's Committee.

The commission is now under pressure to attend the committee, after Prof Mary Daly indicated that the testimony of 550 people who spoke to the confidential committee was not fully considered as part of the final report.

Mr Ryan said the mother and baby homes report does not represent "a finished process" and the Government will work to make sure the voices of survivors are heard.

"There will be an open national records centre, where their lived testimonies can actually be accessed, can be actually stored, can actually be acknowledged and recognised, this is not a finished process. And it's that, along with the redress schemes that we need to manage and deliver now," he told RTÉ.