By Maeve Rowan
The High Court has ruled that the Minister for Children applied the wrong legal test when deciding that St Joseph's Baby Home in Stamullen, Co Meath, and Temple Hill in Blackrock, Co Dublin, could not be added to the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.
The cases were brought by John Kiernan and Marie Thornton, who spent parts of their childhoods in St Joseph's and Temple Hill respectively. Inclusion of those institutions in Schedule 1 of the 2023 payment-scheme legislation could allow former residents who meet the residence requirements to apply for payments and other benefits.
Mr Justice Alexander Owens found that the Minister had treated the absence of antenatal or postnatal services for mothers at the individual facilities as preventing them from satisfying the statutory criteria.
The judge held that this approach was legally incorrect. Section 49 requires consideration of the purpose for which the relevant institution was established, and an institution may have operated different services at separate facilities. It is therefore not necessarily decisive that one particular building cared only for infants.
The judgment records evidence that Temple Hill formed part of the activities of St Patrick's Guild, whose purposes included assistance for unmarried mothers and their children, infant care and child placement. The court said the currently available information suggested Temple Hill may satisfy the first part of the statutory test, but expressly made no finding that it does.
The evidence concerning St Joseph's was less complete. The court said further historical material may be required to determine the purposes for which the associated institution was established.
The High Court refused to compel the Minister to add either institution to the scheme. That decision remains for the Minister, with the consent of the Minister responsible for public expenditure. The court instead proposed declarations that the earlier assessment was legally flawed and indicated a preliminary view that Kiernan and Thornton should receive their costs.