'Unfair' to make nuns contribute to mother and baby home redress scheme

New records released under Freedom of Information to the Irish Examiner show robust exchanges between the Sisters of Mercy and then children's minister Roderic O'Gorman, where the congregation defended its refusal to contribute to the redress scheme.

A religious order has said being asked to contribute to the State's mother and baby home redress scheme is “akin to asking a frontline worker in 50 years’ time to be held accountable for the failures of the current HSE”, new records show.

Representatives for the Sisters of Mercy made the comments during a meeting with former children’s minister Roderic O’Gorman on December 13, 2021, where it was claimed it would be "unfair" to make the nuns pay, as they were "just workers".

Following publication of the Commission of Investigation report into mother and baby homes, eight religious-run orders were asked by the Department of Children to contribute to the €800m redress scheme that was rolled out last year for survivors. 

The Sisters of Mercy was one of five orders who refused to make any "voluntary" contribution.

Of the the three orders that made offers, the Bons Secours who ran the Tuam home, offered a contribution of €12.974,720, which was accepted by the Government.

Sisters of the Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul offered a building it owns that was already subject to an “informal lease” by the Department of Education as its contribution. This was also accepted.

A third congregation, Saint John of God, offered to donate €75,000 to a charity that was not relevant to the scheme. The Government has rejected this offer.

New records released under Freedom of Information to the Irish Examiner show robust exchanges between the Sisters of Mercy and Mr O'Gorman, where the congregation defended its refusal to contribute to the redress scheme.

The nuns operated the county home in Kilrush in Co Clare, which was transformed from a workhouse in the early 1920s and staffed by the Sisters of Mercy on behalf of the County Clare Board of Health from 1922 to 1928.

The Commission of Investigation's report showed 180 children were born in the Kilrush home and 321 women were admitted, between 1922 and 1926.

In the minutes of the 2021 meeting, Mr O’Gorman was told by a spokesperson for the nuns it was 'unfair' to make them pay a contribution when they were only workers employed by the local council.

The sisters also provided staffing support at other mother and baby homes, including Stranorlar in Co Donegal, and were also employed at Cork County Home and District Hospital.

In the minutes of the 2021 meeting, Mr O’Gorman was told by a spokesperson for the nuns it was “unfair” to make them pay a contribution when they were only workers employed by the local council.

A spokesperson said the congregation was involved in trying to “make life better for these people, they are now being asked to contribute to this scheme”.

Their representative said: “The State’s historic failings send a chilling message in the present to those who work in frontline roles today in conditions that are challenging, in different ways, for those dependent on state services.”

The congregation also told the minister the ”county homes were owned, controlled, governed and supervised by the local authorities”, who “held the budgets, decided who was admitted and discharged and were responsible for the upkeep of the buildings”.

The nuns referred to the Commission of Inquiry’s final report delivered in 2021 which found:

• The matron in Stranorlar was a ‘thorn in the side’ of the local authority in her fight for improvements to that home;
• Local authorities set the dietary arrangements in those homes and were noted to have intervened to reduce dietary provision;
• The local authorities pursued maintenance charges from putative fathers;
• The State structure was premised on unmarried mothers performing unpaid work in county homes in return for local authorities arranging the boarding-out of their children in foster families;
• The commission’s report evidences local authorities, in many cases, resisted policies that would have reduced the number of single parents’ resident in county homes who were thus available to work unpaid;
• The conditions in the county homes were appalling for all residents, including the sisters who worked in them.

The minister was also told “no wrongdoing or failure had been identified in the commission’s report on the part of any Sister of Mercy in connection with their employment or volunteering in county homes” and they “should not now be misrepresented as having legal responsibility for the county homes”.

The minutes show Mr O’Gorman arguing the involvement of congregations in a number of county homes “does create an element of responsibility in terms of the trauma and stigma suffered”.

However, the Sisters of Mercy responded by saying they “have tried to help other women and now they were being impugned for providing this help”.

Mr O’Gorman said he accepted what the congregation said in relation to the difference between county homes and mother and baby homes, but both institutions were fully within the remit and scope of the commission’s investigation.

He outlined how he was engaging with all the congregations that were involved with these institutions in any way and there had to be a collective response to what happened in the homes.

"This is the expectation of the public and survivors who faced emotional abuse and stigma in these institutions,” he said.

He told the order his predecessor Katherine Zappone had written to the pope during the Commission of Investigation process, and, the pope, in his response, had cited the responsibility of the State, the Church and the religious congregations.

However, the nuns insisted they were employees of the home and it has been repeated across the commission’s final report of 2021 that the local councils were the governors.

The children's minister was also told 'no wrongdoing or failure had been identified in the commission’s report on the part of any Sister of Mercy in connection with their employment or volunteering in county homes' and they 'should not now be misrepresented as having legal responsibility for the county homes'. Picture: Andy Newman

The minutes then show the nuns requested a five-minute recess, and when the meeting resumed, a representative repeated his previous question in respect of the exact failings by the Sisters of Mercy.

The meeting was told the Sisters of Mercy did not attend at the Commission of Investigation; there were no findings by the commission and their sole involvement was to produce records in relation to Kilrush.

The Sisters of Mercy again reminded the minister they did not “own or govern any mother and baby home in the State, and that there is neither legal, moral nor ethical justification for the State’s request that we make a financial contribution”.

They also requested that the minister for children:

• Inform the public about the State’s exclusive responsibility for county homes; 
• That any attempt at deflection of this responsibility towards those who worked in the institutions would be a profound departure from the principles of justice and fairness that all our citizens, including public servants today, and including the Mercy women, are entitled to expect;
• That all those involved in county homes, whether as resident or employee, both living and deceased, would be treated with an equal sense of fairness and justice;
• By making this request of their congregation, the State will create a misunderstanding in the public mind as to the nature of the sisters’ role in county homes.

The eight religious orders had originally been asked to make a "voluntary" contribution to the redress scheme. 

Earlier this year, external negotiator Sheila Nunan submitted her report showing the majority were refusing to make any contribution, despite having more than €1bn in assets.

Education minister Norma Foley has since written to those orders to state her disappointment and has asked all to "reflect" on their decisions. 

She has begun consultations with the Attorney General on how to force religious orders who refuse to contribute to the redress scheme to do so.