A chara, Thank you for your email on this extremely important matter. 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…

Do you support a change to the current Mother and Baby Institution Payment Scheme to include all survivors? (See information in email) 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?; As a PBP candidate that worked to expose the cynical tactics of the government in October 2020 to block the release of the Commission file to the victims and survivors I would work to have legislation brought in to have full redress for the victims and survivors and full accountability…

Hi There,Thank you very much for your email.  The Social Democrats fully support these policy calls, and they are reflected in our manifesto: Survivors of Mother & Baby Homes, as well as many other victims and survivors of State wrongdoing, are further wronged by the State because of its reticence to apologise to, and adequately redress, victims of state wrongdoing. In Government, we will revisit the Commission of Inquiry legislation from 2004 to ensure that the basis for State responses is grounded in Human Rights and Equality.  We have been consistent in calling out the government for their failure to secure…

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?; If elected, I would fight to expand the current scheme to include all those who spent time in an Institution involved in separating unmarried mothers and their children and to make an enhanced medical card available to all, and to include all those abused in a ‘boarding out’/adoptive placement or through forced labour, vaccine…