The former Marianvale mother and baby home in Newry (PA)
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The cut-off date to apply for mother-and-baby home redress is not likely to be pushed further back than 2011, it has been indicated.
Under the current draft of the Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill only families of victims who died since September 29 2011 will be eligible for payments.
More than 14,000 women and girls in Northern Ireland are thought to have passed through institutions, which were run by the Catholic Church, religious orders, some Protestant denominations, and the state until the 1990s.
Many were found to have been mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up their children for adoption.
A payment of £10,000 is proposed to be made to eligible claimants and a £2,000 payment to eligible family members on behalf of a loved one who has died since September 29 2011.
Victims and survivors of the institutions have called further consideration to be given to the cut-off.
Earlier this month they expressed concern at the rejection of an amendment to the legislation which would have allowed those who died before September 2011 the equal right to redress.
SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin asked Ms Little-Pengelly whether she and First Minister Michelle O’Neill will be bringing forward another amendment to the Bill around the cut-off date.
Responding, Ms Little-Pengelly said that she and First Minister Michelle O’Neill considered the issue carefully and were advised that 2011 is a further back cut-off date than in other jurisdictions such as the Republic of Ireland.
“First of all, I want to put on record my thanks to all of those victims and survivors who have campaigned so hard for the inquiry, for the redress scheme, and many of those people are no longer with us and will not get the benefit of that scheme,” she told MLAs.
“Those who are will, and that is why the scheme is set up the way that it is, but it doesn’t deal entirely with posthumous claims.
“It is too late for those who sadly have passed away to be able to get those payments in acknowledgement for what they have suffered, some of their family members will be able to apply for that acknowledgement payment.
“But I would say to the Member, this is an issue that we very carefully considered within the Executive Office.
“We were advised around what happened elsewhere and other jurisdictions, the Republic of Ireland, for example, their posthumous claim is 2021.
“We felt that that would be not far enough back, so we went back to 2011 where we have been advised objectively by officials that that is the date in which a legitimate expectation could first have been raised.
“That is further back than any other jurisdiction, as far as I am aware, and while it is a very difficult issue, we have tried to be as generous as we can by prioritising undoubtedly those that have those needs right now and ensuring that those people can get the most support possible.”
