Mother and baby home redress contributions
Deputy Whitmore asked whether religious orders and pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine trials would be required to contribute to redress for survivors. The Tánaiste said religious orders should make a substantial contribution and that the State was calling on them to do so, but enforcement was uncertain; he had no answer yet on the companies.
What measures does the Government intend to take to ensure that the pharmaceutical companies involved in the mother and baby home vaccine trials, and the religious orders that were so centrally involved in running the institutions, will contribute appropriately to redress for the survivors? Does the Government intend for those measures to be mandatory?
Comment on this
Certainly, when it comes to the religious orders, it is our view that they should make a substantial contribution. The State has to take primary responsibility for what happened in those institutions but the religious orders have responsibility as well. We will be, and have been, calling on them to make a contribution. Whether we are able to enforce that if they do not make one, we just do not know at this stage, but that is something the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, will be working on.
Comment on this
What about the pharmaceutical companies?