GE2024MaryLou Mc Donald

Emily , Rebecca,  Lisa , Laura  and Maggie a chairde ,

Thank you for your email to Mary Lou, and for your important work with CLANN.

As an internationalist and anti-imperialist party, Sinn Féin is committed to human rights and equality. A number of historical wrongs by the state must be corrected urgently, and outdated legislation on the statue books must be removed.

Almost 40 percent, or 24,000 survivors have been left behind by the government’s Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme. It is estimated that 58,208 mothers and children passed through one of Ireland’s Mother and Baby homes. This is the total number of people Sinn Féin would support in our proposed amendment to the government’s redress scheme. The current discriminatory payment structure and hierarchy of suffering does a great disservice to so many courageous women and men who have fought for so long to have their voices heard, and their egregious human rights abuses recognised and compensated.

Sinn Féin priorities include:

v Urgently introducing disregard legislation based on the recommendations of the Final Report

of the Department of Justice Working Group on Disregard Legislation

v Drafting legislation to implement the findings of the Offences Against the State Act review

v Establishing judicial inquiries into cases such as Shane O’Farrell, Sallins and Terence Wheelock

v Issuing a state apology to the family of Captain James Kelly

v Legislate to allow for solicitors to assist with Enduring Powers of Attorney applications to the

Decision Support Service.

v Include excluded 24,000 survivors (0-6 months babies) in Mother and Baby Institutions Payment

Scheme

I am sharing a link to our GE manifesto below with you, which includes our commitments on this very important matter , and hope that this information is of help

Click to access SinnFeinManifesto2024.pdf

Take care

Nikki Gavan

Office of Mary Lou McDonald TD | Dublin Central