Debate contribution: Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill: Further Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Áine Murphy on 22 June 2026.

MLA: Miss Áine Murphy
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 22 June 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill: Further Consideration Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5638696

Text

I thank everyone for joining us today for the second group of amendments. I will touch on the disappointment and hurt that were caused during the Consideration Stage regarding the amendment on the posthumous eligibility dates that was not selected for the previous debate. I am sure that every Member in the Chamber has been contacted by survivors and family members who expressed their frustration and distress. For many, that amendment represented an opportunity to ensure that all victims and families could access recognition through the scheme. For that reason, I welcome amendment No 11, which proposes a revised date that has emerged as a consensus position. No date will ever satisfy every concern that has been raised. I know that the Committee Chair has just touched on that. Ideally, we would not like to see any date attached to posthumous claims. The amendment represents a genuine effort to reach agreement across the Chamber and, importantly, to ensure that as many victims and survivors as possible can be included in the scheme. It reflects the engagement that has taken place since the Consideration Stage and demonstrates a willingness to respond to concerns expressed by survivors and their families. I also recognise the intention behind the further amendments tabled by Gerry Carroll. They are clearly motivated by a desire that nobody who has experienced trauma should be excluded from redress. Members across the Chamber share that objective. However, as the Chair of the Committee said earlier, Committee members received correspondence from TEO that addressed some of Gerry's amendments. The correspondence highlighted significant, wider legal and policy concerns that the amendments as currently drafted could create inconsistencies in the Bill. There is also a real concern that such complex changes at this stage could "jeopardise" the delivery of the legislation. Hopefully, junior Minister Bunting will offer some further clarity later in the debate. Throughout the process, the survivors have engaged with honesty, dignity and, of course, immense patience. I thank them sincerely, including all who contributed to the inquiry process, those who engaged with or made submissions to the Committee and the many who undertook advocacy on their behalf. For far too long, women who found themselves pregnant in difficult circumstances were made to carry a burden that was never for them to carry alone. At the most vulnerable moments in their lives, they were judged, marginalised and failed by the institutions, the state and society as a whole. The consequences of those failures have echoed across generations. It is my sincere hope that the legislation and the truth recovery and redress processes that will follow can offer some measure of recognition to those who have suffered. No payment can ever compensate for the trauma that was endured, but acknowledgement matters, and it will ensure that the survivors are believed, that their experiences are properly recorded and that society finally states clearly and without qualification that what happened to them was wrong.

490 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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