Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns has criticised the Minister for Children’s response to the recent High Court ruling in relation to two institutions wrongly excluded from the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.
Deputy Cairns said:
“The Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme has been needlessly discriminatory since its inception, with 24,000 people excluded from seeking recompense – including the survivors of Temple Hill and St Joseph’s infant homes.
“The exclusion of 40 per cent of survivors from redress was a cynical and despicable attempt to limit the financial cost of the scheme.
“Survivors should not have to bring the Minister to the High Court to seek access to redress. However, it was incredibly welcome to see Judge Alexander Owens’ recent ruling that the Minister erred in excluding these two institutions from the scheme.
“Two weeks after this ruling, I received a most unsatisfactory response from Minister Norma Foley to a parliamentary question I submitted in relation to the matter. While she said she is ‘carefully considering’ the implications of the ruling, she added that ‘the judgement does not direct the inclusion of any institution in the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme’.
“There should be no equivocation from the Minister on this; no more attempts by the government to penny-pinch at the expense of providing survivors with some measure of justice for what they underwent as children.
“Following the court ruling, there is nothing further to consider. The Minister must add Temple Hill and St Joseph’s to the payment scheme without delay.”
March 6, 2026