Thank you for your email and invitation to support your pledge.  Unfortunately Fine Gael has requested that all party candidates do not sign pledges or make commitments on behalf of the party in relation to the future programme for government. I hope that you can appreciate therefore, that I am not in a position to sign your pledge at this time.  I have logged your query and should I be elected to Dáil Éireann I can revisit the issues you have raised. Kind regards Leonora Clare Fine Gael General Election Candidate. Leonora Carey, Fine Gael

A chairde,                     Thank you for your email. Please see the below from our manifesto. 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…

Do you support a change to the current Mother and Baby Institution Payment Scheme to include all survivors? Yes, I support an amendment to the legislation for more inclusive redress If elected to office, what commitments will you make to address these ongoing exclusions to survivors?; To address delays and unnecessary red tape. Linda Gordon Kelleher, Fianna Fáil