Social Democrats vote unanimously to push government towards clear redress scheme for Mother and Baby Home survivors

Publication date: 27 February 2021

THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS have passed a motion to push the government to set out a redress scheme for Mother and Baby Home survivors at its national conference this afternoon.

The motion sets out the party’s plan to call on the government to prioritise measures that address the concerns of survivors, including legislative change around access to personal information and records.

The Social Democrats voted to call on the government to set out “how they will introduce a proper redress scheme, in close consultation with survivors, and ensure the religious order contribute significantly and appropriately”.

The party has also committed to asking the government to set out how it will ensure proper investigations into the issues raised by the Commission of Investigation’s report, protection for burial sites, and the establishment of a dedicated criminal justice unit and human-rights compliant coroner’s inquests and exhumations.

The motion garnered strong support, with 235 members voting to accept it and no votes registered in opposition.

One person chose to abstain from the vote.

Speaking at the Social Democrats’ conference, TD Holly Cairns said that Ireland has “been dealing with decades of abuse at the hands of the State and religious orders”.

Cairns said that the state was forced to set up the Commission of Investigation “after the tragic discovery of hundreds of babies and children in a mass grave in a disused septic tank in Tuam”.

“The Commission was extended multiple time to allow it to do its work, yet the Government is denying survivors’ requests for a further extension so that questions about the accuracy of their testimonies and access to their data can be dealt with. This week, the Government allowed the Social Democrats’ motion on this issue to pass in the Dáil while at the same time refusing to give legislative effect to it,” she said.

“Concerns raised yesterday by the Data Protection Commissioner about the Commission of Investigation’s archives being handed over to the Minister for Children further highlight the need for an extension. This was supposed to be a truth-getting exercise, but we’ve just ended up with untruths and inaction from the Government.”

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Campaigners gathered outside the office of the Commission in Dublin today in protest of how survivors have been treated.

Protesters are raising concerns over the handling of witness testimony and the representation of the survivors’ experiences.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, one survivor has said that her testimony to the Commission was “misrepresented” to a “shocking extent” and that important context was missing in the final report.

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Lauren Boland

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COMMENTS (18)

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Patrick Corr

Sat 6:43 PM

Governments have been brought down for less. The handling of this whole episode has been shocking.

179

Dean

Sat 6:55 PM

FG/FF were literally involved in facilitating the infanticide that happened in those enslavement institutions.

127

Fachtna Roe

Sat 8:06 PM

@al: The Roman empire has a much wider geographical base, and has been around for hundreds of years longer. While I agree with the sentiment you express, the comment does highlight a common misunderstanding which our schools encourage: that the Roman church is anything other than a foreign power which does what it likes; it is it’s own Law, and considers this State and all others as beneath it.

akaalison

Sat 7:28 PM

As an Adoptee I have to say the Social Dems, Sinn Fein, Independents & People Before Profit have represented my community with respect, integrity, knowledge & inclusion. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael & the Green Party are all about spin, procrastination & insensitivity. The now infamous, insulting & blatant lie that is “Survivor Centered Approach” is mere political propaganda…at the expense of an already traumatised, marginalised & vulnerable minority group, who after all these decades deserve autonomy, respect & support!

I’ll NEVER vote FF, FG or GP again!

To STILL be actively, purposefully, illegally, immorally & unnecessarily denied OUR OWN identities in 2021 is an absolute infringement on our fundamental, civil, equal & human rights, both as Irish AND as an EU citizens, in the 21 century!

152

Jules

Sat 11:20 PM

@akaalison: well said

Charliegrl80

Sat 7:00 PM

Its such a pity they have to be d ragged into doing anything if they could get away with doing nothing they would! Again, it’s such a pity that survivors of the religious abuse were also treated so bad by all these same people. The only people that got redress were the legal profession and the disaster of an organization set up to help care for survivors name Caranua now closed down to survivors but the management still receiving payments from the survivors money from the beginning to the end. As a survivor myself if I need to access counselling I’d have to contact another organisation set up for us but I’d rather die than use it as it it run by the very people that abused me in the first place. We were supposed to receive enhanced medical cards still waiting 10 years later, we were supposed to get help with housing but refused each time we asked for help, they hired their own preferred contractors to carry out work for survivors and the work carried out was beyond inferior and no one is allowed to question them.

Brendan Gordon

Sat 8:12 PM

Seize the assets of the church, keep what’s of public value like schools and hospitals and sell or commercialise the rest to fund redress and support for victims of a century of institutional abuse committed with government complicity.

Fachtna Roe

Sat 10:13 PM

@Brendan Gordon: For the most part, they don’t even own the schools. Or the land. Often, unless adjacent to existing church lands, the land was donated by others, and the whole thing will be bound up in a Trust. For the most part when something is referred to as a “Catholic School” it’s like referring to raspberry ice-cream. The raspberries don’t *own* the ice-cream.

After all, the Romans didn’t get rich just by giving stuff away.

Celtic Druid

Sat 7:43 PM

What about the children.? Growing up not knowing who they were .

Úna O Connor Barrett

Sat 8:20 PM

Disgraceful treatment by this goverment.Shame in them,time to remove them.

lorcmulv

Sun 12:43 AM

Whilst the treatment of those in mother and baby homes decades ago was terrible why should the current taxpayer pay anything to a redress scheme. These homes were run by the Catholic Church and not the state, also the state did not send any of these people into the homes, was it not their own families that put them into these homes. The church should pay all the costs and redress due to the victims.

Bleurgh

Sun 8:44 AM

@lorcmulv: I agree, their families, and the father of the baby put them in these homes. The current government didn’t put them in there. Women who were forced into these places should challenge the men that got them pregnant and abandoned them

Will Hamilton

Sun 8:57 AM

@Bleurgh: The Catholic Church is solely responsible. It was the sick twisted sexually neurotic beliefs they indoctrinated into the population that caused the problem. All their assets should be nationalised. And if anymore is to be paid it should be by the collaborators who still file into Mass and hand over money to this corrupt foreign cult.

Will Hamilton

Sun 8:53 AM

The photo with the article was taken at a protest on Saturday 27 2021. It was organised by Baby Shoes Remember (you can join on facebook). The baby shoes are tied with black mourning ribbon.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission is just another element in a long running engineered cover up of Catholic Church crimes. The victims will get noting while the Catholic Church keeps it’s money and it’s clerics avoid justice for their crimes.

Pat Andrews

Sat 7:46 PM

They are some pain in the hole

Laura McCarthy

Sun 9:07 AM

Why can’t the Criminal Assets Bureau go into all the institutions, businesses and persons who profited from the exploitation of the mother and baby homes? They are outside of the government and can investigate any institution or party. The redress can come from the assets they seize.

Countries: Ireland