Redress ‘next year’ if the lawyers step aside, says survivor
‘We can’t have delays, we’ve lost too many’
A WOMAN who gave birth in a mother and baby home says survivors can get redress next year if lawyers and advocates ‘step aside and don’t interfere’.
However, Sheila O’Byrne said she and other mothers are ‘extremely disappointed that mothers’ rights won’t be recognised’ in the new Adoption (Information) Bill being brought forward by the Government.
Ms O’Byrne, 64, was speaking after she took part in a Zoom meeting between mothers who lived in the homes and Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman on Thursday afternoon.
The meeting was held in the aftermath of controversial comments made by Mother and Baby Homes Commission member Professor Mary Daly at an Oxford University webinar that survivor testimony was excluded from the final report of the commission’s inquiry because of the threat of legal action from religious orders.
On Friday, the chair of the nowdissolved commission, Yvonne Murphy, wrote to the head of the Oireachtas Children’s Committee, Kathleen Funchion, confirming members would not appear before the Dáil hearing, saying its independence ‘cannot simply be abandoned because its findings are not acceptable to some at a political level’.
Questions had been asked about the redress scheme because it appears to be based on a flawed report. But Ms O’Byrne says she and other survivors believe redress is ‘closer than it ever has been’ and that it will come next year.
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The advocates and legal people and all the others giving advice need to leave it alone now.
‘At the end of the day, they never
walked in our shoes. There’a lot of people including people who worked on the commission who made money from our stories. It’s time for us to get our money now and it’s there now, it’s very near. It’s sorted.’
Ms O’Byrne added: ‘We can’t have any delays. We’ve lost too many mothers. They’re old, they’re frail, they’re dying, they’ve been through enough.’
Minister O’Gorman confirmed last week that applications to the redress scheme will not open until next year.
He had intended to have a scheme ready to go before Cabinet for approval last month, but he said this was delayed partly due to the many submissions from the public during the consultation process.
Ms O’Byrne, who is a member of the First Mothers and Survivors Unite group, entered St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home on Dublin’s Navan Road in 1976. Her baby son, Niall, was put up for adoption and she spent much of the following 41 years searching for him before they were finally reunited in 2018.
She said the new adoption access Bill will make it ‘just as hard’ for other women seeking their children. And the Bill, as described to them on Thursday by the Minister, ‘excludes mothers’ rights yet again’.
Ms O’Byrne told the MoS: ‘The Bill says mothers have a right to the birth record of their child but they don’t have a right to their childrens’ birth certificates.
‘That’s not right, it’s not just. Mothers can never support this Bill because of this.’
Deirdre Moran of Tallans Solicitors, which represents more than 50 survivors of the homes, said submissions from survivors on how the redress scheme should work will replace the ‘far too narrow’ terms outlined in the report. She was also confident the redress claims will be expedited ‘sooner rather than later’.
Ms Moran told the MoS: ‘Thankfully, Minister O’Gorman has confirmed that he is still considering proposals for the implementation of the redress board despite the issues around the commission report.
‘We hope that with the enactment of this legislation and the establishment of an inclusive redress board, perhaps this horrific chapter of Irish history could finally be closed and the healing begin.’