The Government is to co-operate with the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that the records of victims of mother and baby homes held in Northern Ireland can be found and that survivors avoid taxes on redress payments.
In November 2021, the Stormont executive agreed to set up a public inquiry into institutions that existed to house unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland, along with agreeing to make redress payments, potentially to thousands of survivors.
However, many of those who should qualify for Stormont compensation were held in homes run by institutions controlled in the Republic, raising questions about the ability of investigators to get records needed now.
In addition, some likely to qualify for Stormont compensation are now living in the Republic, so an agreement with Dublin will be needed to ensure that redress payments are not taxed, or do not impact on welfare benefits.
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The issue featured significantly during a meeting of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) in Dublin Castle, the second in less than four months for a body that has been frequently suspended because of collapses in the Stormont institutions.
The mother and babies’ homes were run by religious institutions that operated across the island, said Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill: “So, there was a lot of movement.”
“It’s important in terms of record maintenance, etc, that we have very strong joined up approach to ensuring that when it comes to getting access to individuals’ information, that we have the maximum information to give to them,” she said.
Supporting the First Minister, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said “a number of issues” have arisen since the decision was taken to have a statutory inquiry in Northern Ireland into the homes.
“Many of the institutions in the north operated across the border,” she told journalists in Dublin Castle, “So, we want to make sure that those participants in this inquiry can get full access to the records, [including] medical records,” she said.
Women from Northern Ireland were held in homes in the Republic, and vice versa, while often the babies of many of the women were sent across the Border, if they themselves were not.
Technical changes are needed to ensure that tax and welfare benefits problems do not arise.
“We want to co-operate to make sure, absolutely, that those women and those born in those institutions get the justice that they deserve,” Ms Little-Pengelly said.
The detail of the issues outstanding was discussed in a meeting in Dublin Castle between the First and Deputy First Ministers and Minister for Integration and Children Roderic O’Gorman.
Promising assistance, Taoiseach Simon Harris said officials would work to ensure that the taxation and welfare issues raised by the First and Deputy First Ministers will be fixed, along with the questions raised about records.
“We’re certainly willing to be as helpful and co-operative as possible, because at the end of the day there were babies and mothers wronged on this island, and it was wrong. They didn’t recognise borders or partition,” he declared.
Unlike some previous meetings of the NSMC, the atmosphere during the three hours of talks at Dublin Castle were friendly, and engage, with people “fulsomely co-operating”, to quote Mr Harris.
Ministers spoke, too, about increasing cross-Border co-operation to counter climate change and biodiversity loss, along with reviewing the ongoing construction of the Narrow Water bridge between Louth and Down and the restoration of the Ulster Canal.
Noting the improved change in mood, Ms O’Neill said: “We now have an opportunity that comes with the reset [in relations between Dublin and London] to get back to the principles of the Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement.”
Saying that it is “crucially important” that the Republic and Northern Ireland work together cooperatively in ways that “can benefit both of our peoples”, she said actions can be taken jointly to improve prosperity, to grow the economies.
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