Mother-and-baby homes: Redress cut-off ‘devastating’ say survivors

A Stormont bill to establish a redress scheme for victims of mother-and-baby homes has been criticised by survivors for retaining a "cut-off date" for compensation. Only families of victims who died after 29 September 2011 will be eligible for redress payments under the proposed legislation. An amendment seeking to remove the date was not selected for debate during the bill's latest stage in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Some Stormont parties described it as "devastating" for campaigners, but the assembly speaker Edwin Poots said "decisions are taken with the best advice". The bill will establish an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes, Magdalene Laundries and workhouses and an associated redress scheme. More than 10,000 pregnant women and girls passed through the institutions which were largely run by religious orders from 1920s until the 1990s. Mechelle Dillon, whose mother Brenda was placed in a home and died in 2003, described the amendment being ruled out as "gut-wrenching". "Those that died before that date were failed in life and now they are being failed in death," she said. "It's really heartbreaking that those who have passed away have been forgotten." Roisin and Lisa Morr