Philomena Lee among mother and baby home survivors to 'experience difficulty' accessing redress

Philomena Lee, whose attempts to trace her adopted son were chronicled in the Oscar-nominated film Philomena is among survivors of mother and baby homes to experience "significant difficulties" in accessing redress.

The revelation is contained in a report by the special advocate for survivors on the workings of the State's compensation scheme, which opened to applicants in March.

In the report, Patricia Carey, who was appointed to the role of special advocate earlier this year, says of “profound concern” is the contact she has had with Philomena Lee.

“At 91 years of age, Philomena and her daughter Jane had experienced ongoing and significant problems and delays accessing redress for Philomena" the report notes.

After becoming pregnant at 18, Philomena was sent to the Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, where she gave birth to a son. 

The Abbey later placed her three-year-old son to be adopted by a Catholic family in the US, and her search for the son was told in the film of her name.

In the report, Ms Carey said she has engaged with 500 survivors to date and "considerable anger has been expressed in relation to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payments Scheme".

Survivor feedback on the exclusions in the payment scheme and operational issues has dominated engagements in the first six months

According to the report, the scheme has “caused deep upset and distress, the further re-traumatisation of some survivors, and enforced a hierarchy of suffering of survivors according to arbitrary criteria”.

Some of these exclusions include:

• Exclusion of people who spent less than six months in an institution as a child; 
• And many institutions excluded from the scheme, including Westbank Orphanage, Temple Hill, private nursing homes, as well as people boarded out.

'Discriminatory and unjust'

Ms Carey described the exclusions are “discriminatory and unjust” and that survivors feel “State apologies are hollow without a range of redress measures to acknowledge the trauma we experienced”.

Survivors have also reported difficulties using the online Mother and Baby Institution Payments Scheme portal system. They also feel "over consulted and under delivered".

Other concerns raised include the fact that records remain in religious ownership

There was also criticism of the communications campaign around the redress scheme, with survivors saying the campaign was not widespread enough and that many vulnerable, older, and isolated survivors both in Ireland and abroad have not yet heard of the scheme.

As of September 16, some 5,104 applications have been received by the State for the redress scheme. There are 4,430 fully completed applications which have proceeded into the processing system.

The report also found there has been a positive response to planned National Centre for Research and Remembrance and the need for local memorialisation at all institutions.