Mother-and-baby homes redress cut-off 'devastating' say survivors

A Stormont bill to establish a redress scheme for victims of mother-and-baby homes has been criticised by survivors for retaining a "cut-off date" for compensation.

Only families of victims who died after 29 September 2011 will be eligible for redress payments under the proposed legislation.

An amendment seeking to remove the date was not selected for debate during the bill's latest stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Some Stormont parties described it as "devastating" for campaigners, but the assembly speaker Edwin Poots said "decisions are taken with the best advice".

The bill will establish an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses and an associated redress scheme.

More than 10,000 pregnant women and girls passed through the institutions which were largely run by religious orders from 1920s until the 1990s.

Mechelle Dillon, whose mother Brenda was placed in a home and died in 2003, described the amendment being ruled out as "gut-wrenching".

"Those that died before that date were failed in life and now they are being failed in death," she said.

"It's really heartbreaking that those who have passed away have been forgotten."

Roisin and Lisa Morris said they were "devastated" their mother Madeline had been excluded from the scheme.

Lisa said the move "doesn't make any sense" and it was "so unfair on all those mothers".

The Alliance Party's Paula Bradshaw said she was "absolutely devastated for the victims and survivors" that the amendment had not been chosen for debate.

The member of the legislative assembly (MLA), who chairs the Executive Office committee, said the cut-off date had "caused so much pain and so much hurt".

Bradshaw called for "transparency" from the speaker's office, saying the issue was "very much damaging for the credibility of this assembly".

She said the committee had heard funding issues and difficulties in finding records were raised as potential factors for having a cut-off date.

"There may be some logistical stuff, but as far as I'm concerned if we're going to have an acknowledgement redress scheme, we have to acknowledge all the mothers and their children," she said.

Earlier, the assembly speaker intervened as the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA Sinéad McLaughlin sought to raise the issue.

"Those decisions are taken with the best advice," Poots said in response.

"You know nothing about what goes on in the background, and it is not in order for you to challenge that."

McLaughlin said that "survivors who suffered the same trauma should not be treated differently simply because they died before an arbitrary date".

She said many had expressed "profound disappointment and upset" that a removal of the cut-off date would not be debated.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA Phillip Brett described any attempt to undermine decisions made by the speaker as "repugnant".

"He receives procedural advice and he takes a decision based upon that," he told MLAs.

Brett said his party colleague's record on supporting victims and survivors was "second to none".

Adele Johnston, who was forced to give up her son after entering Marianvale mother-and-baby home in Newry, branded the outcome "absolutely disgusting".

"I would like Mr Poots to come and speak to us and tell us what his rationale is," she said.

There was once a network of institutions across the island of Ireland which housed unmarried women and their babies at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was viewed as scandalous.

There were more than a dozen such mother-and-baby homes in Northern Ireland.

Three of them were Catholic-run workhouses known as Magdalene Laundries, where women frequently had to do exhausting, unpaid labour.

Researchers found that a third of those admitted were under the age of 19, with the youngest child to be admitted aged 12.

Many women and girls were separated from their children by placing them in children's homes, boarding them out (fostering) or through adoption.

There was also the issue of the cross-border movement of women and children in and out of the institutions.

The last institution in Northern Ireland closed in 1990.

The executive bill, which was introduced by the first and deputy first ministers, will establish a statutory public inquiry and a statutory redress scheme.

It comes after a consultation on proposals to establish an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes was launched in 2024.

The estimated cost is £80m, including almost £60m in initial redress payments to cover about 6,600 redress claims.

Each eligible person would receive a payment of £10,000 and a £2,000 payment will be made to each eligible family member on behalf of a loved one who had died since 29 September 2011.

A further Individually Assessed Payment (IAP) for the specific harm suffered by an individual would follow the public inquiry.

In a statement an assembly spokesperson said the speaker takes the legislative process "extremely seriously" with a "rigorous but cautious approach".

They said Poots has a "long history of being supportive of efforts to address the abuse which occurred in religious and state institutions in the past".

"Under assembly standing orders, the speaker's procedural decisions are final and it is out of order to challenge them. Therefore, parliamentary convention is that the speaker does not give reasons for his procedural decisions," they added.

"However, he recognises that this inevitably means that members, and those potentially involved with legislation, may be disappointed from time to time in different decisions."