The 92-year-old, after whom a House of Commons bill in the UK known as Philomena’s Law was recently named, said the redress payment here needs to be extended to anyone who ever spent time in an institution.
As a young woman, Philomena’s three-year-old son Anthony was taken from her by the nuns while she was locked up in Sean Ross Abbey’s mother and baby home in Roscrea. He was adopted by a Catholic family in the US against her wishes.
Philomena was one of thousands of women who were subjected to such forced adoptions in Ireland. Her story about her 50-year search for Anthony helped shed a light on the injustices suffered by those in religious-run mother and baby homes.
An €800m Mother and Baby Home Institutions Payment scheme opened to applicants in March of last year to compensate women like Philomena and thousands of other men and women who were affected.
However, the scheme has been heavily criticised by campaigners for excluding up to 24,000 survivors.
Under the terms of the scheme, anyone who was born in a mother and baby home, but spent less than six months living there, is not entitled to redress. Those who spent lengthy periods in hospital beyond 180 days receive a deduction to their overall payment, despite being returned to the homes after their treatment.
Philomena’s daughter Jane Libberton told the that her mother wants the scheme extended to include all survivors - regardless of how long they spent in a mother and baby home.
“Absolutely everyone should be included, that is what my mother wants,” said Jane Libberton. “It should be open to everyone. These babies lost their identities, and there are 24,000 babies that we know of, who were under six months when they were adopted out.
“I don’t know why anyone would think that removing a baby from their mother would not cause damage to a baby, it’s very unfair. That’s the message my mother would really like to give, everyone should be included.”
Jane Libberton also said that for elderly survivors like her mother Philomena, who is 92, applying for redress through an online portal is difficult. “Applying for the scheme was also difficult, to do it on a portal, that’s very confusing for an elderly person.”
Latest figures from the Department for Children show a relatively poor uptake on the compensation package to date. While an estimated 34,000 survivors are eligible to apply, up to the end of March just 6,350 applications have been received.
More than 5,500 notices of determination have issued to applicants, 4,500 or 82% of which contain an offer of benefits under the scheme. Applicants have six months to consider their offer before they need to respond, with more than 4,100 payments already made or in the process of being made, according to the department, which is responsible for administering the scheme.
Jane Libberton said: “The poor uptake means there are thousands obviously not applying and there is a reason for that, mum would encourage everyone to apply.
She said her mother, like many other elderly survivors, also experienced difficulties while applying for redress.
“Mum was 92 recently,” Jane continued. “I did it all for my mother, she would not have been capable of applying for the redress.
“Even then, there were delays, I missed ticking one box and that delayed everything.
“Also, they wouldn’t deal with me, so I had to be beside mum every time I rang for her, I’d be dragging her up to my office, it just was so complicated.
“I did send them a stinging email in the end, mum had started to feel because of who she is they were deliberately delaying her application.
“It has been resolved now but really, it should not be so complicated, mum doesn’t have the capacity to deal with that. No elderly person does."
Another barrier Philomena Lee faced in her application was verifying her identity, because she was applying under her married name, Gibson.
“Mum had also no bills with the surname Lee, she is married, so it just took longer than it should have to be resolved.
“In the end we found one telephone bill with the surname Lee, there were many barriers.”
Jane was also critical of how the scheme was advertised for survivors living abroad.
“I think I saw it advertised on a tube once” she said. “It really wasn’t well known. I know there are great Irish communities in London and across the UK, and they help get the word out, but it could have been advertised better."
The Department of Children said by the end of last year the Government had spent €1.8m promoting the mother and baby homes redress scheme in countries that have a significant Irish diaspora as part of a planned €2.75m spend to advertise the scheme in a five-year campaign.
In the UK, there have been visits to meet British groups that are supporting applicants living there, and there were posters advertising information on all London bus routes and tube lines.
Last month a Bill was proposed in the UK Parliament called Philomena’s Law, which is aimed at preventing survivors living there from being taxed on their redress.
British Labour MP Liam Conlon moved the bill to allow survivors receive redress without running the risk of "losing means-tested benefits and financial support for social care".
“He contacted us about five weeks before he brought the bill to parliament,” explained Ms Libberton.
“He asked whether mum would lend her name to the law, and we said absolutely yes, I explained it all to mum, she is a reluctant person, she always says no before she says yes.
“Mum just wanted to know if ‘this was a good thing’ and I told her yes, it is.
“It is a lasting legacy using her name and we feel it is such an important issue. Liam asked us to go to the parliament when he was reading it out. He was very clear and really grabbed people’s attention, you could see people nodding and agreeing.
“There were at least 60 people there, it was cross-party, and you could see that they were all agreeing.
“The average payment is €16,000 and that can cause huge problems with your UK pension, it will only affect maybe 5% of the population but this is important."
Jane said that her mother is doing well but at 92 but she is “frail”.
“Her husband Philip is still alive, and they have been married 40 years,” she said. “They keep each other going.
“Mum is frail, and she lost her confidence during covid, but she’s doing well. She is not well known here [in the UK] at all; in Ireland she is known because of the film.
In 1951, Philomena had been sent to Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea by her father after getting pregnant. After giving birth to her son, she spent fours years working in the convent's laundry. The nuns gave him up for adoption to the US, where his name was changed to Michael A. Hess.
He visited Ireland in an attempt to find his mother but died before he and Philomena could be reunited. His remains were buried in Sean Ross Abbey's cemetery, with Philomena's search for her son captured in the film of the same name.
“Mum is a quiet person, but she knows the film has impacted a lot of people. I think the film has resonated with so many people and it was heartbreaking to watch."
Jane also said that while her mother can no longer visit Ireland due to her age, on one of her previous trips here she called into the nuns to apologise for the film.
“She said she was sorry about the film and the book,” said Jane.
“Mum was a psychiatric nurse, and she said eventually she had to put the anger over her shoulder and into the past because she saw what anger did to people.
“When mum told us about my brother, it was so sad for her, and then to learn he died, we were so shocked. But in hindsight, when we learned that he chose to be buried in Sean Ross Abbey, well he must have wanted to be found.
“I think people like my mum because she has a very gentle way about her, she is modest and never wanted to tell her story and do the book.
“But the world took to her because of her soft manner. She knows the film has touched so many and she does appreciate that, and it opened doors for people and got people talking.
“Anthony has never been forgotten - we talk about him and his photo is up in all our houses.”
The Department of Children has been contacted for comment.