Government seeks GDPR experts for Mother and Baby Home redress scheme

The Government is looking for data protection experts to help introduce its polarising Mother and Baby Home redress scheme.

The successful applicant will have to ensure the operation of the scheme is fully compliant with all national and EU data protection laws.

The Government said it needs “specialist expertise in Data Security, GDPR and Data Protection” on an ongoing basis to support the Department of Children as it  the redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby institutions, otherwise known as 'Magdalene Laundries'.

The deadline for applications is March 14. The contract, predicted to cost €139,000 excluding VAT, will run for two years with a potential extension of two further six-month periods.

The Government will be a Data Controller in respect of any personal data submitted by survivors or relatives who are applying for redress under the scheme. People have up to five years to apply for redress once the scheme opens up fully.

The redress scheme passed a vote in the Dáil last night and will now be debated in the Seanad, with tension rising between TDs and Government leaders. Opponents to aspects of the scheme include Holly Cairns, tipped to be the new Social Democrats leader in just a few weeks, and Catherine Connolly.

Apparently it is in the 'national interest' to stop people who spent less than six months in an institution as a child from getting redress.

'The general public don't accept this treatment of survivors anymore, it's gone on for far too long' @HollyCairnsTD#MotherAndBabyHomes pic.twitter.com/EvSsIWzn5x

— Mick Caul (@caulmick) February 1, 2023

Around 34,000 people will be eligible to apply for redress under the scheme, which is estimated to cost around €800 million. However, some 24,000 survivors are excluded from the scheme.

Many survivors, legal experts and members of the Opposition have been very critical of the fact the scheme excludes people who spent less than six months in an institution as a child.

Catherine Connolly TD, who has advocated on behalf of survivors of institutional abuse for many years, said the Government has been “forced every step of the way to do something” by survivors and people like historian Catherine Corless.

"So here we are today left this evening pushing through legislation that’s discriminatory, divisive and utterly based on cost-containment measures," she said, calling the Mother and Baby Home redress scheme in its current iteration "madness".

“How dare you or the commissioner or the commission have said [mothers] walked in there, or their families put them in there, that is complete nonsense and an utter ignoring of what happened in terms of the powerful and the powerless," she said during Leaders' Questions yesterday.

The scheme does not specifically cater to people who were boarded out as children, a precursor to fostering; people who were subjected to vaccine trials; and people who experienced racism or other discrimination in the system.

There have been repeated calls, nationally and internationally, for the scheme to be extended. Some amendments to the Bill may be accepted in the Seanad but, as it stands, the legislation is expected to pass without any major changes to its scope.

The controversial scheme, which passed a vote in the Dáil last night, is expected to open to applications later this year.

So if you spent 6 months in a mother and baby home you have no redress under the gov scheme. Random and utterly cruel. Is there no end to the insults we will hurl at survivors. https://t.co/nncVoRJQKy

— Siobhán McSweeney (@siobhni) February 23, 2023