‘RELIGIOUS ORDERS SHOULD BE SUED FOR VACCINE TESTS’

CALLS have been made this week for the Government to consider suing religious orders and – in relation to vaccine trials in mother and baby homes – pharmaceutical companies, if they refuse to contribute to the redress scheme for survivors.

Sinn Féin TD Kathleen Funchion, who also chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Children said it was ‘absolutely disgusting’ these wealthy groups could avoid paying out.

Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns also spoke of religious orders profiting from ‘crimes, child labour and trafficking’.

If a gang carried out these crimes, there would be no hesitation but because it’s the Church, the Government wouldn’t dare,’ she told the Dáil.

Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman is in talks with several religious orders about contributing to compensation but has previously said he does not have the legal power to compel them to do so.

The redress scheme was also criticised for excluding people who spent less than six months in a mother and baby home.

Breeda Murphy, of the Tuam

Mother and Baby Alliance, said the scheme’s proposals ‘as they stand are designed to divide, not unite a nation’.

She called them ‘a poor reflection on those holding power today whose stance is similar to those who held such positions in the past’.

Ms Murphy told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We won’t give up as, ultimately, we will be shown to be on the right side when this is consigned to history.’

But she added that, for now, ‘it’s a living reality for many who live with the everyday reminder of loss, of incarceration and exclusion.’