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Bethany Home Survivors Incensed As Government Dismiss Redress for Mother and Baby Home Children

By Claire Scott
Dublin Live
April 11, 2017

http://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/bethany-home-survivors-incensed-government-12881458

Lorraine Jackson, from Killenard, Laois, who spent nine months in the home shortly after her birth, cuts a ribbon to unveil the memorial to 222 children from the Bethany Mother and Child Home.

The Bethany Home survivors group have condemned the government’s refusal to accept the redress recommendation from the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Inquiry.

The Commission's interim report was published today and recommended that the government should re-examine the exclusion of those in mother and baby homes from the 2002 Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.

Alternatively, it suggested the state establish and additional redress scheme for those who lived in these homes.

In a statement released by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, it said: "The Government has carefully examined the Commission’s recommendation regarding redress, and has concluded that it is not possible to implement it.

"The Government is conscious that the Commission has made no findings to date regarding abuse or neglect, and believes it would not be appropriate to deal with the question of redress in advance of any conclusions on this issue by the Commission."

The Bethany Home Survivors group, made up of those who spent time in the Bethany Home on the Orwell Road in Rathgar have called on the government to reverse this "shameful and immoral" decision.

Spokesperson for the group, Derek Leinster said: "What was the point of the government appointing an expert group that heard evidence from mother and baby home survivors and that carefully sifted through evidence, if they weren't going to listen to them?

"Minister Zappone has zapped her own panel of experts. She did not listen to the evidence, she did not hear stories of abuse and neglect.

"She has betrayed the trust of survivors who put their faith in the Commission. Survivors took time out to tale their tale, only for the government to abuse their trust.

"The excuse that there were problems with a previous redress scheme is pathetic. Go and devise a better one then: get a government and civil service who can do it. It is all down to cost because Mother and Baby Home survivors are of no account."

 

 

 

 

 




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