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

Debate contribution by Mrs Linda Dillon on 22 June 2026.

MLA: Mrs Linda Dillon
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 5638716

Text

I thank everybody who spoke in the debate tonight. I really welcome the fact that Mr Brett has confirmed that there will be no Division. That shows that the empathy and emotion that I talked about is absolutely there. I think that we all feel it. You cannot fail to feel it when you have listened to what affected women and girls and their adopted adult children have been through. First, I will speak to amendment No 11. Like the previous Member who spoke, I was not on the Committee and was not privy to the detailed work that was done there, but we can all agree that amendment No 11 was the important one for everybody involved, specifically the victims and survivors. For that reason, I welcome wholeheartedly the Committee amendment and the fact that the House will not divide on that it tonight.
That is a positive thing. As Mr Brett said, it shows that we do not want to send any kind of message to victims and survivors that we do not understand what they have been through or that we do not empathise. We do not want to add to the pain that they have already suffered.
I thank the Committee and all those who worked with the Committee, particularly the victims and survivors, birth mothers and their adopted children. They have shared a unity of purpose. It goes without saying that we have all been impressed by that unity of purpose. All the victims and survivors who would not have been impacted on by the posthumous date have been united in saying that it must be delivered, because they understand that, no matter when someone died or was in the institutions, that person's pain and suffering was the same as theirs. That is to be commended, and I thank them all for doing that and being so united in their purpose. That unity has ensured that there is unity in the Chamber among all parties. Thank you very much. I wanted to place that on the record. I agree with the Member for South Belfast on premature deaths of mothers being a theme. Without a shadow of a doubt, that is directly related in at least some cases to their experience in the institutions and living with the loss of their children. In at least some cases, it may be as a result of how they became pregnant in the first place, because that is a conversation that still has not really been had. There absolutely was abuse, incest and rape. Many of those women were girls. They were children themselves when they went into those institutions, and the question of how they became pregnant was never asked. We have to acknowledge that. There was no support, care or empathy. Their trauma was carried throughout their lives. For that reason, I believe that the posthumous date of 2011 was particularly cruel and inhumane, because those women and their families would be punished and disadvantaged again. They and their adopted children all suffered in the same way, and they deserve the same recognition. It is about recognising the pain and suffering that they went through. I agree with my colleague Áine Murphy about the intent of the amendments tabled by Gerry Carroll. I think that, actually, everyone across the Chamber agrees that those amendments are an attempt to do the right thing. Of that I have no doubt. I hope that Gerry understands that I raise my concerns about those amendments with the same intent, which is to always do the right thing on the Bill. In my mind are the women whom I first met over 10 years ago. I understand Gerry's comments that legal challenges can always be brought to legislation, and he is absolutely right about that, but I want to minimise any further delay for those who have campaigned. I met them over 10 years ago, but they have been fighting for much longer than that, and they should not have to wait for one day longer than the first date by which we can make this possible. We need to pass the Bill as quickly as possible and ensure that we deliver for those women. We are talking about the posthumous date, but, if we take much longer with the Bill, we do not know how many more women or adopted children will not survive to see the day that it receives Royal Assent. I do not want to be responsible for that. For that reason alone, I will not support Gerry Carroll's amendments, but I thank everybody for their work on the Bill and put on the record that those who carried the pain are the ones who have given the most to the Bill, and we all thank them for that.

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

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