Government approves the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill

The Government has approved the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Bill for those who were resident in mother-and-baby institutions.
The Payment Scheme will provide financial payments and an enhanced medical card in acknowledgement of suffering experienced while resident in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.

The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has secured government approval for the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill. The Bill provides the legislative basis for the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.

Some 34,000 survivors will be eligible for financial payments and 19,000 will be eligible for an enhanced medical card under the Scheme, at an estimated cost of €800 million. It will be the largest scheme of its kind in the history of the State in terms of the numbers expected to benefit

The Payment Scheme will open for applications as soon as possible in 2023 following the enactment of the legislation

The Payment Scheme will operate as follows:

  • all mothers who spent time in a Mother and Baby Institution will be eligible for a payment, with the amount increasing based on their length of stay
  • all children who spent 6 months or more in an institution will be eligible for payment based on their length of stay
  • there will also be an additional, work-related payment for women who were residents in certain institutions for more than three months and who undertook what might be termed commercial work
  • an enhanced medical card will be available to everybody who was resident in a Mother and Baby or County Home Institution for 6 months or more

An important difference between the original rates approved by Government in November 2021 and the rates set out in the Bill today is that the Minister has improved the overall approach by introducing more refined payment bands.

These more refined bands, which are defined by reference to days and are supplemented by additional quarterly rate bands, will serve to benefit applicants, particularly where they would have been at the upper end of a given annual band under the original proposals.

They will smooth and narrow the gap between payment amounts for applicants, and increase fairness and transparency.

Another key improvement is that the Bill provides for periods of temporary absence of up to 180 days to be included when calculating the total duration of a person’s time in a relevant institution and their corresponding financial payment.

Many mothers and children spent time outside the institution, for example as a result of a hospital stay relating to pregnancy, childbirth, illness, or infectious disease.

The Minister considered it important that a person’s period of residence (and associated payment) should not be reduced because of hospitalisation which may have been caused by harsh institutional conditions.

Applicants will qualify solely based on proof of residency, without a need to bring forward any evidence of abuse or any medical evidence. In certain limited circumstances, sworn affidavits may be required.

Those survivors and former residents now living overseas will qualify for a payment on the same terms as individuals living in Ireland and will have the choice to receive an enhanced medical card or a once-off payment of €3,000 in lieu of the card as a contribution towards their individual health needs.

This legislation will facilitate the establishment of an independent Executive Office, situated within the department, to administer the Scheme. The Scheme will open for applications as soon as possible in 2023, once the legislation is passed.

The Scheme will take a holistic and non-adversarial approach to ensure that survivors and former residents are not re-traumatised by their engagement with it.

On making today’s announcements, Minister O’Gorman said of the Scheme: “With Government having now approved the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill, I am committed to bringing this very important legislation through the Houses over the coming months. Intensive work is also underway in my department to establish the Office to deal with applications which will open as soon as possible after the legislation is passed.

The Payment Scheme, as a central measure in the government response to Mother and Baby Institutions, will benefit 34,000 survivors to the value of €800 million. It represents a significant milestone in the State’s acknowledgment of its past failures and of the needless suffering experienced by so many of its citizens.”

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