Around 4,000 survivors of abuse in industrial and reformatory schools could qualify for new Government support announced this week.
The new health, housing and educational supports followed a 51-day hunger strike by four campaigners outside Leinster House last year.
Miriam Moriarty Owens, Mary Donovan, Mary Dunlevy Greene and Maurice Patton O’Connell had been campaigning against what they felt were the inadequacies of the services available to survivors, under a new scheme announced in 2023.
Following the end of their hunger strike in November, the Government agreed to a number of new measures and a State apology, which was delivered by Micheál Martin in the Dáil this week.
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Survivors of industrial and reformatory schools will now have dedicated health liaison officers and better access to counselling and physiotherapy services. Eligible survivors will have access to a medical card for life, which will not be subject to means testing. There will be more funding made available for education grants for survivors.
While the campaigners had sought a new specific contributory state pension for survivors, the Taoiseach said yesterday that there was “complexity” to that proposal that he and the campaigners had agreed easier and more flexible ways to address the same issue.
New payments of €600 per year will be introduced “as soon as possible” to fund “informal learning, self-development and wellbeing activities” for survivors.
Speaking to the select committee on finance on Thursday, the Taoiseach confirmed that Minister for Housing James Browne has already written to local authorities to advise them to prioritise survivors of abuse for social housing. Minister for Social Welfare Dara Calleary has also written to all welfare officers to advise that survivors may also be entitled to receive assistance with funeral costs.
The Taoiseach was challenged by Louise O’Reilly of Sinn Féin who asked when services such as a new medical card would be in place for survivors.
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“[There are] 4,000 people potentially involved here in terms of making sure we have a proper system, in terms of the medical card or the enhanced medical card and the health services that they will be entitled to,” Martin said.
As part of the agreement with survivors, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan confirmed in the Dáil this week that survivors do not have a criminal record “by virtue of their detention in any industrial school”.
O’Callaghan added that written certificates can be provided to those who wish to have further confirmation.
