677. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if her Department will negotiate with her counterparts in Britain to ensure that all survivors of institutional abuse to include all schemes related to mother and baby institutions, industrial schools, and Magdalene laundries now living in Britain, who receive financial redress supports or any related settlements should be equally be protected (details supplied). [53087/26]

The Department of Children, Disability and Equality administers two redress schemes for survivors of historical abuse - the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme (Payment Scheme) and the Magdalen Restorative Justice Ex-Gratia Scheme (Magdalen Scheme).

The Magdalen Scheme is in operation since 2013. It made provision for a Stg£1,000 (maximum) grant to women living in the UK who sought to set up a personal injury trust fund so that a Scheme award may not affect their welfare benefits.

The Payment Scheme is in operation since 2024. Over a long period of time there has been very positive engagement between this Department (in cooperation with Irish embassy officials in London), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Great Britain (GB) and the Department of Communities in Northern Ireland (NI) in relation to the treatment of awards from the Payment Scheme in means tests for benefits in GB and NI.

Separately, a campaign led by Liam Conlon, MP, together with other public representatives and representative organisations, called “Philomena’s Law” had been working its way through Westminster, garnering significant media attention.

The discussions and campaign, together, have ultimately been successful. On March 13th the Taoiseach and the then UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, announced that payments made from Ireland’s Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme to UK-based survivors will be disregarded in means tests for benefits across the United Kingdom.

Such a disregard is already in place in Ireland. This means that payments are discounted for tax purposes and in assessments for social welfare and other benefits.

Since the announcement by the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister, departmental officials have been liaising with their counterparts in London and Belfast. The up-to-date position is that NI officials are currently drafting the required legislation for NI and, whilst UK officials have confirmed that it will be a few months before the legislative amendment is through, survivors do not need to delay in applying to the scheme or accepting a payment as the DWP will now disregard any means arising from the scheme. To that end, operational guidance has issued to staff working in pensions, universal credit, and housing benefit so all deciding officers should now be aware of the disregard. DWP have also issued guidance to Local Authorities since they administer housing benefits.

To date, there have been almost 800 applications from UK survivors to the Payment Scheme, almost 600 of which have received an offer of an award. The Payment Scheme has been assisting UK-based applicants in terms of their acceptance of awards on an ad-hoc basis. Such assistance has involved ensuring some flexibility within the process pending the possibility of a disregard coming into being.

I am happy to partake further in any discussions that might further assist the broader survivor diaspora in Britain.