The Children’s Minister is to appeal a High Court ruling that opened the door to many more people becoming eligible for compensation under the State’s €800m redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes.
Norma Foley’s department defended the move, saying an appeal was advised by Attorney General Rossa Fanning on the basis the ruling had caused uncertainty and could make the scheme unworkable.
The scheme, which has been in operation since March 2024, has faced sustained criticism as it is limited to just 14 mother and baby homes and 30 county homes, while survivors are only eligible if they spent at least 180 days in the institution.
In February, Mr Justice Alexander Owens found that Ms Foley’s predecessor as minister, Roderic O’Gorman, erred in law when evaluating whether St Joseph’s Baby Home in Stamullen, Co Meath, and Temple Hill Hospital in Blackrock, Co Dublin, could be added to the list of institutions.
Neither institution was included in a list of homes covered. Ms Foley had contested the case, brought by survivors John Kiernan, also known as John Duncan Morris, and Marie Thornton.
Mr Justice Owens’ ruling essentially signalled that the minister had to now consider adding both institutions to the scheme.
However, Ms Foley has instead sought to have it overturned by the Court of Appeal, which has scheduled a directions hearing for July 31.
In response to a parliamentary question this month, she said the High Court’s guidance in interpreting the criteria for the addition of institutions to the scheme was “broad and unclear”.
In a statement, the Department of Children said an appeal was being taken on the advice of the Attorney General.
“This was on the grounds that the High Court judgment has generated a grave degree of uncertainty in relation to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act, including potentially rendering the payment scheme so unclear in scope as to become unworkable,” the statement said.
The department said it could not provide an estimate of how many additional survivors could become eligible for redress if the High Court’s findings are followed up on.
As of last February, around 7,000 people had applied for redress out of the 34,000 thought to be eligible and €78m had been paid out.
Mr Duncan-Morris, who now lives in Scotland, spent the early years of his life in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork and later in St Joseph’s Baby Home in Stamullen, Co Meath, before being transferred to St Mary’s House in Baldoyle and later being placed with foster parents.
He found himself excluded from the scheme for two reasons.
Firstly, St Joseph’s, an adoption society and not a residential unit for babies, was not one of the institutions covered.
Secondly, while Bessborough was included, he spent just three months there.
Temple Hill, where Ms Thornton was placed as a baby, was excluded because mothers were not there and it did not provide ante- or post-natal care.