Irish Examiner view: Mother and baby redress plan heaps further pain on survivors

The sheer sense of injustice provoked by the proposed exclusion of many survivors from the scheme shows that the Irish State continues to betray women to this day

Candles, childhood mementos, and tokens of lost children placed at a sculpture and remembrance plaque and inscription on the wall of the folly by the former Bessborough mother and baby home. Picture: Larry Cummins

The news that 40% of survivors of the mother and baby homes will be excluded from the proposed redress scheme has been met, unsurprisingly, with a withering response.

It can be fairly described as an appalling political misjudgement, and it is hardly a surprise that Opposition TDs were quick to warn the minister responsible, Roderic O’Gorman, that the scheme is likely to be challenged in court.