In the coming weeks, the Government is expected to pass the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Bill 2022 which would see some survivors receive financial payments and enhanced medical cards.
However, the proposed redress scheme has been criticised for its narrow eligibility requirements which excludes tens of thousands of survivors such as those who spent less than six months in an institution.
“If there isn’t enough money down the back of the Government couch to give fitting redress to survivors, then let the catholic church pay,” says Noelle Brown, who was born in Bessborough mother and baby home in the 1960s but is not included in the redress scheme.
Brown was speaking on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast alongside human rights lawyer and co-director of the Clann Project Maeve O’Rourke.
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“They made so much money off of selling babies or unpaid labour, they should pay,” she tells presenter Róisín Ingle.
As a result of the scheme’s strict criteria, 40% of survivors could be excluded, which Brown explains is “retraumatising” victims all over again.
“We are being legislated by people who don’t know what it’s like, or don’t care,” she says.
The pair are calling people to action and asking them to make their voices heard, so that the Bill is not passed as is.
“Ring your TDs, send emails… keep the pressure on because we know it can change things,” says O’Rourke.
For more information, see Clann Project
You can listen to this episode in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
