Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Ryan report shocked the nation. At the time of the setting up of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund in May 2012, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, said it was right that the State apologise to those whose childhoods were stolen and who, in many instances, could not live full lives as adults and citizens. He talked about the State's failure of the children who were victims of institutional abuse, stated that their childhoods had been stolen and spoke of the pain and abuse they had suffered, and promised that the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund would be available to help them rebuild their lives, particularly in the areas of counselling, health, personal social services and educational services.

During the summer I was contacted by a constituent who has asked me to say she is happy for her name to be mentioned in the House. Her name is Eithne Doyle; she is in her 60s and from Dún Laoghaire. She spent six or seven years in a Magdalen institution and described her treatment there as appalling. She was young. She suffered from dyslexia, yet she was ridiculed as a dunce, as being no good. She was never given support or nurtured. She described how her confidence as a human being was crushed and her self-esteem stolen from her. She eventually left school at the age of 14 years after the trauma she had suffered there. She went to Britain at the age of 19. Things did not go well for her in England, although she had two children there. She returned with them to Ireland in 1988. She was homeless for 13 months, living in bed and breakfast accommodation and hostels. She was forced to walk the streets with her children for ten or 12 hours a day because they were thrown out of the hostel. During that period her daughter, Yasmin, was unwell and she did not know what was wrong with her. When she was finally housed, her daughter died nine months later of a brain tumour. She thought she was unwell because of their living conditions and could not properly identify how unwell she was because they were homeless. This is a person who has suffered terribly and she puts it all down to her period in the residential institution.

After all these tragic circumstances, Eithne has since tried to rebuild her life, re-educate herself and regain the confidence and self-esteem that was stolen from her. She was delighted when the residential redress board was set up and she was awarded compensation. She was particularly delighted at the commitment which was reiterated by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, last year, that support for education would be provided. She has returned to education and attended courses in social studies. This year she began a further education course in Sallynoggin on social advocacy. She contacted the statutory residential institutions board believing she would be entitled to financial support from it only to discover that no applications were being taken. She is furious, upset and angry that after everything that has happened to her, after the State's acknowledgement of its complicity in her treatment and the promises of support to help her to rebuild her life, that support is not available when she needs it to re-educate herself, rebuild her life and I hope find employment. I suspect Eithne's tragic situation and life is repeated in many other instances. She wants to know whether that fund will be opened and whether applications will be accepted. She wants to know if that support will be provided for her and people like her in order that she can begin to rebuild her life as the Government promised she would be able to do.

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