Galway Bay fm newsroom - The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has said the Mother and Baby Homes redress scheme must be significantly broadened to include all survivors.
In a submission to the Oireachtas Children’s Committee, the human rights organisation said the scheme is based on a deeply flawed report that did not properly address the human rights abuses that occurred in all institutions involved in forced family separations.
The group further argues that the proposed redress scheme excludes some categories of survivors, denies legal aid and forces survivors to sign a legal waiver, diluting their right to access justice.
It’s estimated the scheme will cover 34,000 survivors from an estimated 58,000.
The group argues this will potentially leave up to 24,000 survivors without adequate compensation.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission report published in 2021 identified 2,219 women who were admitted to the Tuam home, when it was first in Glenamaddy from 1921 to 1925, and in Tuam from 1925 to 1961.
ICCL’s Communications Manager is Sinéad Nolan - she says the injustice of being excluded from the scheme is particularly acute for children who were boarded out or who spent less than six months in an institution.
