Minister ‘erred in law’ excluding two institutions from mother and baby homes scheme

Norma Foley failed to properly consider whether St Joseph’s and Temple Hill should be included, court finds Minister for Children Norma Foley failed to properly apply the law when she excluded two institutions from the mother and baby home redress scheme, a High Court judge has found.Judge Alexander Owens said the minister “erred in law” in evaluating whether St Joseph’s Baby Home in Stamullen, Co Meath, and Temple Hill Hospital in Blackrock, Co Dublin, met the terms for inclusion in the scheme designed to compensate former residents of certain institutions.However, the judge said he could not compel the minister to add the two facilities to the list of those covered by the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023.Judicial review proceedings were taken by John Kiernan (now John Duncan Morris) and Marie Thornton who were put into St Joseph’s and Temple Hill, respectively, when they were babies. They were challenging the exclusion of the institutions from the scheme.READ MOREMan who kept horses in ‘harrowing conditions’ jailed for two yearsLarry Murphy linked to search over disappearances of Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo DullardNoel Long appeals cold case conviction for murdering Nora Sheehan 44 years agoBaltinglass residents hope for ‘closure’ for families of Deirdre Jacob and Jo Jo DullardThe Act required the minister to examine whether she had “sufficient information” to conclude whether the institutions met the criteria for inclusion in the scheme. The “first limb” of this test required her to identify the institution and to ascertain the purpose for which it was established, the judge said.“The evidence establishes that the Minister did not apply the first limb of the test when she decided that she was precluded from making a regulation including St Joseph’s and Temple Hill” in the scheme, he said.The Minister had submitted that St Joseph’s and Temple Hill could not be classified as mother and baby homes as they were institutions “in which only children (as opposed to children and their unmarried mothers) spent time”.The Minister had “misinterpreted one aspect of the test”, Owens said. “If an institution was established for a purpose of providing pregnancy related and infant care services, the fact that it provided those services in different facilities would not be decisive; nor would it matter that the institution at some point discontinued providing pregnancy related care services.”However, while the Minister erred in law in her evaluation of St Joseph’s and Temple Hill, it would be a matter for her and not the court to determine if they met the terms of inclusion in the scheme, he said.Solicitor Norman Spicer, who represented Morris and Thornton said the decision was a “milestone for survivors of the Mother and Baby Institutions”.“Our clients have succeeded in the first leg of this journey – to add further institutions to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme which will help to ensure that survivors are treated equally by the Government and the State,” he said.“It is worth noting however, that justice hasn’t yet been done in the broader sense. Our clients and the survivor community from Temple Hill and Stamullen have not yet been added to the list for redress and are therefore not yet eligible at this time, to apply to this scheme.”