OPPOSITION TDS ROUNDLY criticised the Government’s planned redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes and related institutions in the Dáil today.
Proposing the private members’ bill, Soc Dems TD Holly Cairns said that, alongside the Church, every Irish Government from the 1930s to the 1990s played a role in keeping the mother and baby home system up and running. A number of women have told The Journal in the last week – since details of the scheme were confirmed – they will not apply for redress because the scheme is deeply unfair and excludes so many of their fellow survivors.Cairns today said: “Some survivors will receive as little as €5,000 under current proposals, despite a lifetime of pain – you would get multiples of that for a whiplash injury.
Her party colleague Róisín Shortall later said it “beggars belief” that religious orders may not pay towards the redress scheme, stating that a number of orders are yet to pay the agreed amounts to previous redress schemes dealing with other institutional abuse.Noting the great wealth of many orders, she suggested that some of their property should be seized if they don’t pay.
Cairns said many issues are yet to be investigated in detail including thousands of unexplained deaths, illegal adoption, racism and other forms of abuse. Defending linking redress amounts to time spent in an institution, O’Gorman said the scheme will be non-adversarial because of this. He says adopted people will get access to their records, and Tuam site will be excavated on the back of these Acts - two major developments.He said the former will finally allow adopted people to get access to their records, while the latter will result in the excavation of the site of a former mother and baby institution in Tuam in Co Galway – where around 800 children are believed to be buried.
Referencing the planned concrete levy that will be introduced next year to raise funds for the mica redress scheme, independent TD Seán Canney asked if a similar levy could be introduced to ensure pharmaceutical companies pay towards redress for people used in forced vaccine trials.
Well the government is only paying this so far. Rope in the church and big pharma for a few million. Those fuckers are getting away with murder. Then Hunt down any living member of these institutions and bring them to justice. These ppl doing gods will, scum the lot of em