Mother and Baby Home survivors 'must receive fair redress' – Mayo TD

A Mayo TD is taking action to ensure the Mother and Baby Homes redress scheme meets the needs of survivors.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh is to speak on a motion in Dáil Éireann tomorrow seeking an urgent review of issues survivors have identified within the scheme.

The motion also calls on the government to immediately seek recourse from religious orders and pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the redress scheme.

She stated: "It's time to respect Mother and Baby Home survivors and their families.

“This motion stands up for survivors. Survivors bravely came forward and told their stories, because they wanted to see justice.

“Having spoken with survivors and their families across Mayo I know that many have been left feeling deeply let down by the appalling way in which the redress scheme has been designed.

“The scheme is simply unfair on many survivors. This isn’t good enough. This government has failed survivors time and time again. This has to stop.

“The motion calls for an urgent review of the scheme’s time-based criteria, exclusion of children who were boarded out, access to the enhanced medical card, proposed payment rates and end the unfair exclusion of some survivors and institutions.

“It also calls on the government to seek immediate and substantive recourse from religious orders and pharmaceutical companies to contribute to the redress scheme.

“I am calling on all TDs in Mayo and across the Dáil to back this cross-party motion and do right by survivors.

"This is the very least that survivors deserve. The government has treated them with a lack of care or compassion time and time again.

“It is vital that the government engages with survivors, not just as a box ticking exercise but to genuinely listen to them."