CATHERINE CONNOLLY AND a number of other TDs have called on the government to to engage with a group of industrial and reformatory school survivors who are currently on hunger strike outside the Dáil.

Four survivors – Maurice O’Connell, Miriam Owens, Mary Donovan and Mary Greene – have now entered the eleventh day of their strike.

Since 22 September, they have been sleeping in a tent outside Leinster House, demanding Health Amendment Act (HAA) cards and a State contributory pension in recognition of the suffering and forced labour they endured as children in State institutions.

The group previously took part in a government consultative forum set up to ensure survivors’ views were considered, but say their concerns have largely been ignored since the 1999 State apology delivered by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

While new supports for survivors were approved in 2023, these did not include HAA cards or pension-type payments.

Such payments are available to survivors of mother-and-baby homes and the Magdalene Laundries.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Connolly said she was deeply worried for the group and criticised what she described as the government’s “mean-spirited” treatment of survivors.

Hunger strikers pictured outside Leinster House yesterday. Rolling News Rolling News

“I’m ashamed that they have no choice other than this strike,” she said, urging Education Minister Helen McEntee to meet them directly.

She added that she has personally recommended they end the strike for health reasons.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger also pressed the government to act.

“The last thing we need is people on hunger strike. The things that they’re looking for are so basic that it’s embarrassing,” she said, adding that many survivors had effectively been kidnapped from their homes as children.

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan responded that he would raise the issue with McEntee, though he said it was “unfair to suggest that the State doesn’t step up to these issues.”

He acknowledged the efforts of the strikers but urged them to abandon their protest, saying: “These people have gone to dangerous efforts to make their point. It is a point that they are making admirably, but I would urge them to not make it through a hunger strike.”

Fianna Fáil TD Michael Cahill also intervened yesterday, warning that the strikers “will not change their minds unless they get what both they and I believe they are entitled to.”

Speaking outside the Dáil, Maurice O’Connell said the group had been campaigning for 26 years.

“This is our final hope, so that the government can finally close this horrific chapter that we went through,” he told Coppinger in a video shared to social media.

The Department of Education has been contacted for comment.