THREE thousand, six hundred people have applied for redress under the Government’s Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme to date.
Some 371 people have been deemed eligible for redress as of 7 June, the Department of Children has confirmed to The Journal.
Of this, 53 people have accepted the offer made to them and these payments are currently either being processed or have already been paid.
The remainder of the 371 payments will be processed if and when those individuals accept the offer made to them.
Once a person is offered a payment, they have six months to decide whether or not to accept it.
People who accept an offer have to sign a waiver agreeing to not take any future legal action related to their time in an institution.
Thousands excluded from scheme
The Government’s long-awaited redress scheme opened for applications in March.
Around 34,000 people are eligible to apply for redress under the scheme, which is estimated will cost around €800 million.
However, some 24,000 survivors are excluded from the scheme including those who spent less than six months in an institution as a child.
A number of people are considering legal action over their exclusion from the scheme, as previously reported by The Journal.
Compensation for mothers starts at €5,000 and increases based on the duration of their stay and whether or not they engaged in ‘commercial work’.
As of 3 June, 10,153 sets of records have been released to people from Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland under the Birth Information and Tracing Act.
After initial delays, applications are “being responded to within statutory timeframes (max 90 days), and there is currently no backlog of requests”, a department spokesperson said.