Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The survivors suffered abuse; they suffered trauma; they suffered pain. They were children and now most of them are elderly. They feel strongly that this Bill does not represent justice and genuine redress. They are right. It is important that their critical voices are heard in this discussion.

Tom Cronin, a member of the consultative forum said, "The Government is using this Bill to masquerade the fact that it is ignoring the views of survivors once again. The Government repeatedly consults survivors and then ignores them,".

Maurice Patton O'Connell said, "They're trying to save money and wait for all of us to die." "They" refers to the Government. Mary Donovan said the Bill shows "a complete lack of understanding" of what survivors need, before going on to say that "time and time again" survivors had asked for a pension in recognition of the unpaid labour many did while in institutions or boarded out as children. They are fairly damning criticisms. The survivors are correct. This Bill falls far short of what is needed.

Many survivors have been excluded. Many of them applied for the redress scheme thinking it related to only sexual abuse and not to other forms of abuse. We must reach out to those who did not apply and include them in the arrangements.

Only four of the 29 recommendations of the consultative forum are included in this Bill. Survivors need a decent income to be able to live a decent life in their later years. They need incomes which will provide for them for the remainder of their lives. That is very different from what it is included here. They need a proper healthcare package that will provide quality health services free of charge and with easy access for the rest of their lives. The enhanced medical card is little more than the medical card entitlements those survivors already have.

They need arrangements to be made in the areas of housing, local authorities, etc., to guarantee their housing needs are met for the rest of their lives.

On education, a certain amount of puzzlement has been expressed in the debate that education has been prioritised over the health needs of people, many of whom are over the age of 65. While education should be included as part of the Bill, it should be open to family members such as sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. There is a such thing as intergenerational trauma and the education package should be available to the other generations also. The proposal to give a €3,000 once-off payment to survivors who are living abroad is pitiful; €3,000 is nowhere near being good enough.

Some 30% of survivors are in the UK. For many of them, the financial benefit they will get from this Bill, as drafted, will be means-tested. Arrangements need to be put in place whereby they will not be means-tested and more needs to be done in that regard. These children were failed by the State. They were failed by the State in their early years and they must not be failed again in their older years. This Bill falls far short of what is needed and the survivors’ voices must be listened to.

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