Government announces its plans for a restitution mechanism to compensate former residents of mother-and-baby homes.
Following a six-year inquiry into Irish mother and baby homes, the Irish government has announced its plans for a redress scheme to compensate mothers and children who were placed in mother-and-baby homes in the early 20th century. The government estimates that around 34,000 former residents are entitled to claim such compensation, both mothers who were placed often against their will in these institutions ran by religious orders with the support of the government, and children, who were separated from their mothers and forcibly placed for adoption. However, the survivors of these centres have been quick to raise their voices to reproach the government for its late and inadequate response to this scandal as it leaves out children who stayed in these centres for less than six months and who may have been separated, for example through adoption as a new-born.
Child Identity Protection (CHIP) welcomes the State’s commitment to begin the journey towards reparation for the victims who survived these homes and urges the government to ensure that each and every child who may have been unduly separated from their mothers, thereby unduly modifying their identity, can have equal access to reparation mechanisms and to speedy re-establishment of their identity.
