Government accused of reneging on State apology to mother and baby home survivors
The mother and baby institutions payment scheme was opened in March 2024, with mothers who spent at least one night, or children who spent at least 180 days, in one of the 44 homes eligible to apply. File picture: Larry Cummins
The Government has “clearly reneged on apologies” and is continuing to heap shame upon institutional abuse survivors by excluding them from redress schemes, the special advocate for survivors has said.
Patricia Carey, the Government-appointed special advocate, has called for redress schemes to be extended to people who were boarded out — placed in private homes — and those who were in mother and baby homes for less than 180 days.
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She expressed concerns that taxpayers' money is being wasted on an ineffective scheme.
Sinn Féin MEP Kathleen Funchion called for Criminal Assets Bureau-style seizures of religious institutions’ assets to force them to make contributions towards redress.
The mother and baby institutions payment scheme was opened in March 2024, with mothers who spent at least one night, or children who spent at least 180 days, in one of the 44 homes eligible to apply.
Just 7,225 people of the estimated 34,000 eligible people have applied. Some 5,300 payments have been made, averaging €15,000.
Ms Carey argued that the scheme is too restrictive and does not allow applications from those who were boarded out. This is when children from institutions and other pathways were placed in private homes and forced to work.
At a press conference in Dublin, James Sugrue explained how he was boarded out, separated from his young brothers, and sent to a farm in Kerry to work.
His brother, David, was “treated like a slave” and “beaten unmercifully” by a family.
He noted that after David died at age 40, one woman told Mr Sugrue that “we heard the screams and we did nothing”.
Mr Sugrue lived in a different home where he was sexually abused by two men.
He is not entitled to any redress because he was not in a mother and baby home, as he said that he is not just looking for money but “proper recognition”.
“[The Government] need to draw a line under this and say, ‘Right, we need to take stock of this, extend the hand of friendship to every survivor, and give every survivor what they're entitled to’,” he said.
Noel Manning was born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork and stayed there for 21 days.
He was then moved to Temple Hill in Blackrock, Co Dublin, where he spent 172 days.
Because Temple Hill is an “unscheduled institution”, it does not count towards the 180 days required for redress.
Mr Manning said he views Temple Hill simply as a "sorting office", adding: “My journey, as I see it now, it's from illegitimate to ineligible. That's how the State sees me.”
He suggested that the exclusion of some cohorts of survivors indicates that the State is “sorry, but not that sorry”.
Ms Carey said that during his State apology, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told mother and baby homes survivors that the “shame was not theirs”.
“The State clearly has reneged on that apology and is putting the shame back on survivors by saying you're ineligible, you're excluded, you're illegitimate again,” she said.
She further argued that the advertising information campaign has been wrong, with advertisements placed on Instagram. She said leaflets need to be sent to all homes in the country, with outreach to nursing homes and men's sheds.
Ms Carey said the €1.8m spent on advertising has been “wasted”.
Ms Funchion, meanwhile, called for Criminal Assets Bureau-style raids to get redress from religious institutions, adding that the religious institutions also apologised, which “shows that they’re complicit”.
In the Dáil, Sinn Féin TD Claire Kerrane called for the redress scheme to be extended.
Mr Martin said it is “not as if there’s a pot of money over there”. “We continue to keep issues under review,” he added.
- Louise Burne is a political correspondent for the
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