State faces lawsuit calling for 'ludicrous' Mother and Baby Home redress scheme to be extended

Over €27.4 million has been paid to survivors to date, but thousands of people remain excluded.

THE FIRST OF a number of legal cases calling for the Government’s redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby institutions to be extended is due to come before the High Court next week.

The case was originally due to be mentioned today but was pushed back until next Monday, 21 October, as a document was missing from the case file.

Judge Mary Rose Gearty said the case would be mentioned next week instead.

John Duncan-Morris, who spent time in Bessborough institution in Cork and St Joseph’s in Stamullen in Meath, is taking legal action against the State.

The 57-year-old is one of thousands of survivors excluded from the redress scheme. He only spent three months in Bessborough, before being moved to Stamullen.

The Bessborough institution is included in the scheme, but John didn’t spend the required six months there in order to be eligible for redress. St Joseph’s, where he spent several years, is among the institutions not included in the scheme.

John is taking legal action in a bid to have St Joseph’s added to the scheme. The judicial review is at the ‘leave application’ stage, a judge is next week expected to decide if the case can proceed.

The Journal understands that a number of survivors are in the process of building legal cases to have other institutions also added to the scheme.

Another judicial review, calling for Temple Hill in Dublin to be added to the scheme, is expected to come before the High Court later this year.

Thousands of people are also excluded from the scheme due to the fact they spent less than six months in an institution as a child.

John says he wants the State to "correct the wrong" done to him and others John Duncan-Morris

Speaking to The Journal ahead of the hearing, John said he has been “let down” by the State throughout his life. 

“I feel let down by everybody in my early years, and today that still remains the case because the Government and the various institutions continue to neglect or to ignore myself and many more.

“You feel like, ‘Have I done something wrong?’

I’m still trying to grasp how [the Commission of Investigation] was set up with a very narrow remit, excluding so many people.

John was admitted to Temple Street Children’s Hospital several times throughout his childhood. He said he is still dealing with medical issues that began when he was younger.

‘Absolutely ludicrous’

John said he is taking legal action because the State “has to correct the wrong” done to him and others.

He criticised the “narrow” remit of the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes – it examined just 18 institutions – and said it is “absolutely ludicrous” that thousands of survivors are excluded from the redress scheme.

“We’ve all suffered… I have suffered, and I just want recognition, simple as that, recognition.”

John and his mother Kathleen met on 14 October 2021, three years ago today John Duncan-Morris

Today’s date – 14 October – is particularly poignant for John as it is the day he finally met his mother, Kathleen Morris, in 2021. The pair spent a few hours together over the course of two days.

Sadly, Kathleen died soon afterwards so they didn’t get the chance to develop a relationship. Attempts to contact his father in recent years have been unsuccessful to date.

No need for new legislation

Solicitor Norman Spicer, who is representing John, said the Government has discretion to add additional institutions to the redress scheme.

Spicer said, under Schedule 1 of the redress legislation, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman “can simply add new institutions to that list without need for legislative intervention”.

He confirmed that a number of other legal cases are expected to be filed by survivors excluded from the scheme.

When asked about the legal case due before the High Court next week, a spokesperson for the Department of Children said:

The State and its entities are entitled to defend themselves in the same way as other litigants, but in doing so will act in accordance with the State Litigation Principals.

The spokesperson said institutions such as St Joseph’s in Stamullen and Temple Hill in Dublin are not covered by the redress scheme because they operated as children’s services.

They said the institutions covered by the scheme had the primary function of “providing sheltered and supervised ante and post-natal facilities to single mothers and their children”.

The spokesperson said extra institutions may be added to the scheme “if it were to come to light that an institution, in which the State had a regulatory or inspection function, fulfilled a similar function with regard to single women and their children as those included in the scheme”.

As of 7 October, 5,202 people have applied for redress under the scheme. Of this, 2,175 people have accepted the payment offered to them and 1,751 have received this payment. 

To date, €27,440,500 has been paid to survivors. The average individual payment is €15,000.

The average processing time, from application receipt to notice of determination, is 70 days, the department said.

Applicants then have up to six months to accept the offer. Once a payment is accepted, it takes an average of 16 days for the money to be transferred, the spokesperson added.