Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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1. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will consider looking at the criteria to apply for redress under the mother and baby institutions payment scheme, given the very high underspend in the scheme this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43701/24]

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I want to ask the Minister about the current position of the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. I welcome that he said yesterday there will be a review in the new year. That is important. In regard to the extension of the scheme, I have given the example a couple of times of Temple Hill in particular.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The mother and baby institutions payment scheme opened for applications in March this year. As of 21 October, almost 5,300 applications have been received. Nearly 3,900 notices of determination have issued to applicants, more than 82% of which contain an offer of benefits under the scheme. Applicants have six months to consider their offer before they need to respond.

While my Department's budget in 2024 was based on higher upfront applicant numbers, this scheme is open for five years so there is plenty of time for potential applicants to assess the scheme and to subsequently apply. It is difficult to predict at what stage across its five-year lifespan applicants will apply, although we know that in some previous redress schemes, significant numbers of applications were made towards the closing date. I have authorised the next phase of the public information campaign for the scheme to launch at the end of this month, October. It is hoped that this will encourage those eligible to apply sooner rather than later.

The underpinning legislation provides for a number of reports and reviews to be produced. Section 48 of the legislation provides for two reviews into the operation of the scheme to be completed. The first is to be completed within six months of the scheme's second anniversary. I think I might have said after one year to the Deputy yesterday, but it is within six months of the second anniversary. I apologise for saying that yesterday. The legislation sets out the issues to be considered within that review, but it also allows the Minister to add other points to be considered within that review as well.

The institutional payment scheme is one part of the Department's response to the report of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes. It is one of the seven key components, but all the others are being advanced at the national records centre, which we discussed yesterday. Birth information and tracing legislation has been provided. A total of 11,000 people have access to birth and early life information. Of course there is also the work on the site in Tuam, for which the agency has been established.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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Could the Minister confirm that the review will be in 2026, within six months of the second anniversary? The review will look at the operation of the scheme, but I presume it would not include the possibility of extending it even if there is money there to do that. I believe that is the case. I do not think anyone could say there is not money to do it. Will the Minister consider extending the scheme if he is in his current position when the review is undertaken? As part of the review, will he also consider looking at the four institutions that were left out and the others that have been excluded? It has been stated that Temple Hill does not qualify for supports, redress or recognition because it was a hospital, yet babies were adopted and paid for on foot of newspaper advertisements. Many children went to America. I do not understand how such an institution is considered a hospital. I have never heard of a hospital that does that. If the Minister is in office, will he consider that as part of the review?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Deputy very much. The review must be completed by mid-2026. That will give a span of time through which the scheme has been operating. There will also be a stronger sense then of the level of uptake of the scheme. We were expecting a surge of applications at the start, in the way we had seen with the birth information and tracing legislation, but it is now clear that the level of applications will be more gradual. We will have a better understanding of the number of applications in late 2025 and early 2026.

It would be wrong for me to speculate what the Minister of the day will make a call on, in terms of the ambit of the scheme, but we designed the legislation in such a way as to list the various points which it allows the review to encompass. We put in a provision to allow the Minister of the day to make a decision and add additional points of consideration as well. There is flexibility for the Minister of the day in terms of designing the remit of the review.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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I may not get the opportunity to raise this again. Coming new into this role, it is only now that I am meeting the survivors. Does the Minister not wonder about Temple Hill? I cannot understand how it can be regarded as a hospital when babies were adopted to America, via newspaper advertisements. How is that a hospital? I cannot understand that at all. I have never heard of a hospital that facilitates the adoption of babies to foreign countries, and does it via newspaper advertisements. There are four institutions in particular but others are also excluded. Will the Minister consider a review of some kind of the institutions that are excluded, given the number of people who have come forward? I again give the example of Temple Hill. Is the Minister not concerned that it is being treated as a hospital when babies were adopted from it via newspaper advertisements?

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The scheme that was legislated for in this regard provides redress in the form of financial payments and enhanced medical cards for former residents of mother and baby homes and county home institutions. That was the definition and basis upon which eligibility for this scheme was decided. It was a response to the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and county home institutions. We all know that there were many institutions in Ireland, over decades, some of them run by religious organisations and some run by the State or privately, where heinous things happened. Deputy Kerrane has listed a number of them that were not defined as mother and baby homes but where mothers who had a baby somewhere else were brought and where their babies were subsequently adopted, often perhaps with very little consent from the mother.

This scheme is based on the definition of mother and baby and county home institutions. The scheme was designed to operate and be implemented on that basis. However, there is an opportunity to review it and the Minister of the day can make determinations then.