Latest news with #PatriciaCarey
Irish Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Mother and baby home survivor upset by absence of 1,090 infants from key report
A survivor of the Sean Ross Abbey mother and baby home at Roscrea, Co Tipperary, has expressed shock that a recently published report made 'no mention' of 1,090 babies who died there, with 'no call for excavations, no investigation into where these babies are buried'. Ann Connolly said the religious order that ran the home 'handed over 269 death certificates, but we know that at least 1,090 babies died. What happened to the rest?' Her open letter to 'every TD, senator and media outlet in Ireland' referred to the first report from special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse, Patricia Carey, published on June 24th. Ms Carey was appointed in March 2024 as part of the Government's response to the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, published in January 2021. READ MORE Ms Connolly, recalling how she and survivor advocate Michael Donovan had met Ms Carey at Sean Ross Abbey, said they had asked her to raise 'the need to excavate anomalies found on the grounds' there with Norma Foley , who was then minister for education, and the Government. They had spoken to her about 'the existence of an underground tank in the Angel's Plot, and the urgent need to lift its cover and examine it for possible human remains. Council maps that don't match what's on the ground and must be rectified', she said. 'Yet none of this is mentioned in Patricia Carey's report. That silence speaks volumes,' Ms Connolly said. 'How is something so heartbreaking and urgent left out of her official report? 'There are women now in their 70s and 80s who are coming to the end of their lives. They still don't know where their babies are. This should have been the number one priority in any report written on behalf of survivors.' [ Exclusion of some survivors from mother and baby redress scheme 'causing anger, distress and retraumatisation' ] She also described as 'tokenism' a recommendation in the report that four survivors be appointed to a steering group for the proposed National Centre for Research and Remembrance. 'If this centre is going to mean anything, it should be shaped, staffed and run by survivors,' she said. On redress, Ms Connolly said the public had been led to believe 'that survivors received large sums of compensation' whereas 'if you were in a mother and baby home for 180 days you qualify for just €5,000' while 'one missing day means you're excluded from redress'. Emphasising that the issue was not about money, she said 'this is about being recognised. About being treated with dignity. About not being dismissed and disqualified yet again'. The State and religious orders 'tore us from our mothers and stripped us of our identities, now they are denying us even the basic recognition of our suffering', Ms Connolly said. In response, Ms Carey said she was in full support of survivors who were calling for dignified burial and memorialisation. 'I agree with the concerns raised in respect of the immediate and urgent need for dignified burial and the sensitive treatment of mass graves, unmarked graves and sites of burial across institutions in Ireland. I am in full support of survivors who have been calling for this to be addressed by the State for decades,' she said. In her report Ms Carey recommended the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme should be extended 'to those currently excluded from redress'. The present 'restrictive eligibility requirements' enforced a 'hierarchy of suffering' according to 'arbitrary criteria' that perpetuated 'the harm caused by the State and the church', it said It called for survivors to have full, unredacted access to all their records and for legislation to compel religious orders and church authorities to hand over all records related to institutions and forced family separation The report also called for an independent investigation into vaccine trials 'conducted without consent' on thousands of children. There should also be greater ease of access to Irish passports for those trafficked abroad for adoption, with more supports and resources made available for survivors living overseas, particularly in the UK and US , it said.
The Journal
25-06-2025
- Health
- The Journal
Mother and Baby Home survivors feel re-traumatised by redress scheme exclusion
THE SPECIAL ADVOCATE for survivors of Mother and Baby Homes has called on the Government to stop excluding people from access to redress schemes and to their own records. Patricia Carey said survivors have told her they have been 're-traumatised' by the Government issuing apologies to them while simultaneously excluding them from redress schemes put in place for those who spent time in institutions. The mother and baby institution redress scheme was launched in March last year. To date, over €66 million in payments have been issued to survivors. Around 34,000 people are eligible to apply for redress under the scheme. However, thousands of survivors are excluded, including those who spent less than six months in an institution as a child. Carey's first annual report was published yesterday. It found that these exclusions are 'discriminatory and unjust', and that the State 'should re-examine and revise the current legislation with a view to expanding it to include those currently excluded'. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said that survivors who receive redress 'feel guilty because other's can't'. 'The only institutions that are covered are county homes and 14 mother and baby institutions. I know, and we know, that there were a network of over 180 institutions,' she said. She said there are a 'myriad of exclusions', including that children who were boarded out to work on farms unpaid when they were as young as five have never been included in any redress scheme. 'In Northern Ireland, they're going to bring in a mother and baby redress scheme where people will receive redress for one day spent. In the Republic, it's 180 days. So that has really upset people.' Access to records Carey met over 1,300 survivors of institutional abuse while writing her report. She said the 'biggest issue' that was raised with her was survivors being unable to access their own records from mother and baby institutions. The Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022 was established to grants right of access to birth certificates, birth and early life information, where available, for all persons who were adopted, boarded out, the subject of an illegal birth registration, or who otherwise have questions in relation to their origins. Advertisement But Carey's report states that some survivors have been unable to access records relating to their birth and early life and care, education, health and medical records, and their placement for adoption in Ireland and abroad. 'This is due to the records being destroyed, moved, or in private or religious ownership,' the report states. Survivors have also experienced 'ongoing challenges' in finding accurate information in their search for details of family members, as well as difficulties in accessing records such as burial and death certificates for children that died in institutions. 'Three out of every five people, they're still looking for records,' Carey told Morning Ireland, adding that they are still in the hands of private and religious organisations. Both the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches, private nursing homes, religious orders, still hold records related to people's times in institutions. They have no right to hold them. They have to hand them over to the State. She said the Preservation of Certain Records Act 2024 made it a criminal offense to move or destroy records. 'I believe that the next stage of that legislation is to take in charge those records, that they are given to the National Archives and that the people they relate to have access to their own records.' Carey added that this needs to happen 'immediately'. 'We've had over 200 years of people in institutions before the foundation of the State. People are aging out of this process. I had a woman who was 78 who asked for her records and was told to contact six different organisations for her own records of the time she spent in institutions.' Carey is also calling for survivors to have access to enhanced health care, enhanced housing supports, and for the Government to include the status of 'Survivor' as a housing status application. She said this would be at no cost to the Government. 'It would mean that if somebody was making an application for housing, the same way as you would say you had a particular medical issue or a disability, you would receive extra points on the housing application waiting list. 'I believe that survivor status for those people who don't have families, who were forcibly separated from their families, or who didn't have any early life experience at a home should be given additional weighting and status on housing lists.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Irish Times
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Exclusion of survivors from mother and baby redress scheme ‘causing anger, distress and retraumatisation'
Excluding some survivors from the mother and baby home redress scheme is causing people anger, distress and retraumatisation, the special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse has said. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme's 'restrictive eligibility requirements' have enforced a 'hierarchy of suffering' according to arbitrary criteria, said Patricia Carey who has published her first report. Excluding certain survivors from the scheme, including those who were boarded out or fostered out and those who spent fewer than 180 days in institutions as a child, 'are arbitrary criteria and perpetuate the harm caused by the State and the church', the report notes. 'The fact that those boarded out as young as five years of age to work unpaid on farms and as servants have never been included in any redress scheme is a stain on the whole of Government response institutional abuse,' said Ms Carey. READ MORE The report also highlights the exclusion of survivors who died before the State apology on January 13th, 2021, which has prevented the families of those who died from making an application for compensation. Ms Carey, who was appointed special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse in March 2024, met more than 1,300 survivors of institutional abuse and forced family separation in Ireland and overseas during her first year in the role. During this time, Ms Carey heard first-hand accounts of 'beatings, sexual and physical abuse, forced and unpaid labour as well as hunger and lack of care, education and family life'. Many survivors left Ireland after their experiences of 'incarceration, confinement or abuse in institutions, or were illegally trafficked or adopted as part of Ireland's legacy of forced family separation', she notes. Many survivors said providing testimony as part of the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme was 'upsetting, traumatic, adversarial, difficult and distressful', the report notes. The report calls for survivors to have full and unredacted access to all their records, and says legislation is needed to compel religious orders and church authorities to hand over all records related to institutions and forced family separation. The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme should be extended 'to those currently excluded from redress' including people who spent time in the mother and baby home network of institutions and all those who were forcibly removed from their families, it says. All open redress schemes should be widely promoted, to encourage as many applications as possible, it adds. Given the ageing survivor population, it is 'unfair and exclusionary to further discriminate' against those who were unable to apply to, or were unaware of, previous redress schemes, says the report. A significant percentage of survivors are residing in social housing or are on waiting lists for social housing and live in areas of social deprivation, with many voicing concerns around secondary institutionalisation in later life in nursing or care homes. Survivors must have access to good quality, affordable social housing and should be fully supported to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible, says the report. It also calls for the establishment of an independent investigation into vaccine trials 'conducted without consent' on thousands of children in institutions in the 1960s and the 1970s. An independent DNA and genealogy service should also be established for those whose births were illegally registered and for those seeking family tracing, it notes. There should also be greater ease of access to Irish passports for those trafficked abroad for adoption and more supports, and resources should be made available for survivors living overseas, particularly in the UK and US, says the report. The post of special advocate for survivors of institutional abuse was created as part of the Government's response to the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. Ms Carey's brief encompasses mother and baby institutions; county home institutions; Magdalene laundries, industrial and reformatory school institutions and related institutions; and those adopted, boarded out or the subject of an illegal birth registration.
RTÉ News
25-06-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
"Records are still in the hands of private and religious organisations"
Patricia Carey, Special Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Abuse, discusses the first Annual Report which highlights the interests and voices of survivors.
Irish Independent
24-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Independent
‘Discriminatory and unjust' mother and baby redress scheme has re-traumatised survivors
The scheme was opened in March 2024, and was announced alongside the appointment of a "special advocate" to act as a voice for survivors. In her first annual report brought to Cabinet today, Patricia Carey says the eligibility criteria for redress have caused "anger and distress" to many, has re- traumatised some survivors and has created a "hierarchy of suffering'. The scheme excludes children who spent less than 180 days in an institution; those who were "boarded-out" or fostered and people in institutions not included under the legislation, among others. The special advocate says that those who are eligible, and who did receive redress, "have shared their strong feelings of distress and guilt" because they were accepted "while others who were in the same institution were left behind'. Ms Carey also says that separate laws to provide enhanced health, education, and other services to survivors of abuse in residential institutions is "unfair and exclusionary" because they do not apply to survivors who were previously paid redress. They expressed concern that those who were unable to apply under the redress scheme or who were ineligible are not included. The Support for Survivors of Residential Abuse Bill was passed in the Dáil last month. The special advocate report said that "sadly' many survivors and their families did not apply for redress because they were not aware of it, they missed the deadline, they were in hospital, prison or other institutions or because of mental or physical health issues. "Given the ageing survivor population, it is unfair and exclusionary to further discriminate against those who, through no fault of their own, were unable to or unaware of previous redress schemes and this would further enforce a lack of justice for all survivors.' The Government set up the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme with the expectation of issuing payments to around 34,000 people and health supports to 19,000 people who were in mother and baby homes, at a cost of €800 million. ADVERTISEMENT Its third implementation report about the action plan for issues related to mother and baby homes, published today, said that over 6,600 applications have been received as of June 15, 2025. By this date, over 4,400 payments had been processed to the value of over €66 million. Over 16,000 requests for information has also been completed under the Birth Information and Tracing Act. 'With an estimated 34,000 people eligible for this scheme, an estimated 40pc of whom live outside of Ireland, the department is conscious of the need to raise awareness of the scheme through all means possible and phase 2 of a public awareness campaign ran from October to December 2024 with a particular focus on Great Britain,' the report said. 'Further phases of the awareness campaign will be undertaken in the future.' The Government had sought for religious bodies to contribute around €270 million to the cost of the scheme. Only two of eight religious bodies linked to mother and baby homes offered to contribute, a report found in April. The Sisters of Bon Secours offered €12.97 million, while the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul proposed contributing a building to the scheme. A commission of investigation was set up in 2015 to examine homes run by the State and religious organisations where tens of thousands of unmarried Irish women were sent to have their babies. The commission found that almost 170,000 women and children passed through the institutions from 1922 until the last one closed in 1998. The investigation exposed the often harsh conditions and unforgiving regimes many women and children experienced in the institutions.
