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THE NORTH’S DEPUTY First Minister, Martin McGuinness, has called for justice for the Bethany Home survivors.
He met with some of the survivors from the home and from Wicklow’s Westbank Orphanage in Stormont yesterday.
The men and women describe themselves as “cross border Protestant orphans” and say they were “unwanted, abused and exploited in Northern and Southern Ireland”.
Justice
The Sinn Féin MLA and Deputy First Minister has now called for justice for the Bethany Home survivors.
McGuinness, who was accompanied by Sinn Féin MLA Jennifer McCann and TD Mary Lou McDonald yesterday, said that it was “deeply upsetting listening to the moving personal accounts from victims and survivors of the Bethany Home”.
Their testimonies illustrate the horrendous brutality that young children and their mothers had to face. I’m aware that there has been a commitment from the Irish Cabinet to make a decision on the issue tomorrow and I welcome that.
He also called for an investigation, explaining:
I believe that there is a requirement to investigate what happened in institutions of this type, to acknowledge where wrong took place and to offer recompense for the pain that people endured.
Bethany Home was a Protestant-run home that was exempt from the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme and the Magdalene Redress Scheme.
Dublin City Council voted in May to call on the Government to “ensure that justice is served to the survivors of the Bethany Home”.
The survivors are seeking an apology from the State and redress for what they suffered while in the home. Mothers were sent to Bethany Home while pregnant and their children were sent from the home to Protestant families.
Many children died from infectious diseases while in the home. Others, such as Bethany Survivors Group chairperson Derek Leinster, were left with longstanding health problems.
Many of the survivors have also experienced difficulties in finding information on their identity, which has affected their search for their family members.
Today, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is expected to make a statement on the survivors’ call for redress and an apology.
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Great idea – similar laws in other countries. Should give people the right amount of time in between jobs to find their feet.
Or, maybe we could introduce a system of universal healthcare so that healthcare is accessible and affordable for everyone, and not just those who can afford insurance!
A yrs health insurance every 18 months from now on then
@Misanthrope: I take a break of 13 weeks every year when it comes up for renewal and I do not lose cover or waiting time.
You are allowed 13 weeks to shop about
@ryan3939: I should too but couldn’t be arsed. Going to start doing it now.
@ryan3939: How can you not lose cover if you take that 13 week break ? Do you mean that the insurance company will honour anything within those 13 weeks even if you haven’t paid you renewal ?
@Nosmo King: No, the current system is that, if you cancel a policy from today, you have 13 weeks from today to take up a policy again, before being slapped with waiting periods as a new customer.
So, if you cancel today, and in a month you find out that you need surgery soon, you can call up, set up a policy from the date of the call, and continue on as if nothing happened.
you can also backdate that 13 weeks if you want, but you do have to pay for the time.. which is fine, if you needed cover during the 13 weeks, but if you didn’t, then just setting up from the date of the call is a good option.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Thanks for that. I’m surprised that insurance companies of all businesses allow such an anomaly to exist.
@Nosmo King: I’d say they would say you knew about whatever illness it was and that it was a pre-existing condition so not covered, so basically you don’t have cover for the 13wks your not paying for
@Alison Sheppard: if you’ve completed your waiting periods your free and clear on that score.
@Nosmo King: Np, i spent 6 years in health insurance. This is something that was set out by the likes of the health inurance authority, in order to be fair to health insurance holders
That stamp duty is 444 per adult and 148 per child. 1184 for the typical 1 adult 2 kid family. Ridiculous really
@lavbeer: it’s disgraceful how much of it goes straight to the government. If the tax on the cost of the policies was reduced or removed, health insurance might be more affordable to most.
@lavbeer: but will the saving REALLY be passed on – it rarely is! Remains to be seen.
@cars: For the government health levy (this is the 444, rather than the separate lifetime community rating levy), most of that money actually goes to VHI.
The health levy goes into a pot, and is then divvied up between the insurers. VHI gets something like 80% of the pot, based on how many older (over 65) members they have, and the remainder is split between Laya and Irish Life Health.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: yea it does but it’s up to 50% of my premium which now generally is worthless.
@lavbeer: Totally agree. Its just under 50% for me, and the kicker is that i am with irish life health.. Yet i am still paying vhi a substantial amount, in essence.
The levy was introduced and set out this way, because of the fact that vhi was previously fulky government owned.
Nice to see some bits and pieces coming our way for a change.
What happens if you get sick during the break
@Dave barrett: you won’t have cover if your on a break, but means when you restart you won’t have waiting period again
Say what you will about our health service but our Health Insurance market is actually regulated quite fairly all things considered.
@ForeverFeel1ng: Is that why it goes up every year and is that why the insures never question a hospital bill which is mainly makey uppy in the first place? People in wards being charged for private rooms etc, that kind of regulation?
have your say