Mother and baby home redress scheme described as 'paltry and insulting' 

Noelle Brown, who was born in Bessborough, Cork, said the scheme had a 'very narrow scope', despite requests from survivors that redress be inclusive. File picture: Ste Murray.

A newly announced redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes has been described as "paltry, insulting and exclusionary" by survivors.

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman announced the €800m scheme, which will be open to 34,000 people who gave birth or were born in institutions.

Survivors have hit out at the fact that payments will not be issued until late 2022 and that children who spent less than six months in a home have been completely left out.

The scheme will be based on the length of time spent in institutions – with payments ranging from €5,000 to €125,000 – which survivors say does not reflect the trauma and abuse suffered by the forced adoption of children.

Mr O'Gorman said: "I'm very conscious that the separation of a mother and a child is a deeply, deeply traumatic event. That's why every mother who was in one of these institutions will be able to qualify for payments... that's a very significant increase in the scope of this scheme."

He said children who were in the homes for less than six months "wouldn't remember their experiences" and said the focus was on making the scheme as accessible as possible.

Noelle Brown, who was born in Bessborough, Cork, said the scheme had a "very narrow scope", despite requests from survivors that redress be inclusive.

"The focus on being resident in mother and baby homes for adoptees is inappropriate. Clearly forced adoptions happened within weeks, days, hours of our births.

"It also doesn’t reflect the toil on a life of searching and being treated appallingly by both Church and State in the denial of our human right to identity, or the current situation where we are being denied health data."

Maggie Lyng, who was adopted through St Patrick's Guild Adoption Society, said the scheme would not take into account the time children were boarded out.

"I and so many are on the same page that this paltry, insulting and exclusionary redress scheme is beyond contempt for a vulnerable marginalised community of people who deserve better than any Government has attempted to deliver."