Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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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.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. He will appreciate that I am not in a position to comment on a specific case, but I will outline the general position on behalf of the Minister who is unavoidably absent.

The Education Finance Board was financed by the specific €12.7 million contribution provided by the religious congregations under the 2002 indemnity agreement. It was dissolved with effect from 29 March 2013. The newly established Residential Institutions Statutory Fund has taken over its remaining functions and will use the less than €30,000 remaining to meet the outstanding commitments of the EFB. Eligibility under the EFB was confined to former residents and their relatives of those institutions that were scheduled under the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002.

The Magdalen laundries did not come within the scope of the redress scheme. However, provision was made to entitle those girls who were sent from a scheduled institution to a laundry and who were abused while resident in it. Therefore, only those Magdalen survivors who were also residents of scheduled institutions under the redress scheme could apply for assistance from the EFB. While the numbers of such women are not known, the McAleese report found that 7.8% of the known routes of entry were referrals from the industrial and reformatory schools.

The Residential Institutions Statutory Fund has been established to oversee the use of the cash contributions of up to €110 million pledged by the religious congregations to support the needs of survivors of institutional child abuse. Supports in areas such as mental health services, health and personal social services, education and housing services will be available from the board. Since its establishment in March, the board has been working on the arrangements to be put in place for the operation of the fund, with a particular focus on developing its understanding of the range of needs of survivors through consultation both in Ireland and the United Kingdom with survivor groups and individual survivors. In addition, the practical arrangements for recruiting staff and establishing an office are being progressed.

The Residential Institutions Statutory Fund has to determine and publish the approved services under section 8 of the Act and the criteria by reference to which it will make decisions on applications. Conscious of the needs of the former residents, many of whom are elderly and infirm, the Minister for Education and Skills is anxious that the fund will be operational as quickly as possible. However, the Deputy will appreciate that the fund must determine its services and criteria at the outset.

Those eligible to apply to the new fund are the estimated 15,000 former residents who have received awards from the Residential Institutions Redress Board or equivalent court awards and settlements. Only those Magdalen survivors who also received awards under the redress scheme or equivalent court awards will be eligible.

On the question of the Magdalen survivors generally, the Government has approved the implementation of a cash lump sum payment scheme as recommended by Mr. Justice Quirke. An interdepartmental group was tasked with giving further detailed consideration to the steps necessary to implement the other recommendations. I understand the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, expects to receive the group's report shortly and will then bring the matter back before the Government for final decision.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I may have caused some confusion in my contribution. The institution in this case had a Magdalen laundry run by sisters, but the person to whom I refer was in one of the residential institutions. The Magdalen scheme is separate.

On the substantive point, having passed a Bill in July 2012 in which the State acknowledged its obligation to the victims of institutional abuse and the need to provide services for them such as education, health, counselling and so on and the board having been set up in March this year, after all that time we are still talking about staffing and administrative problems and there is, in fact, no scheme for the victims. The Minister himself described it as one of the darkest, most shameful chapters in the history of the State. He has acknowledged that many of the people involved are elderly. If the scheme is to mean anything, they need support now. I have described one person's situation, but I suspect there are many more. A total of 15,000 may be eligible for the scheme and after all this time and given the tragic circumstances of their lives, we are still talking about administrative problems. They want the scheme to be opened. The Minister should be here to tell the House when it will be open for applications. What Eithne and others in the same position would like is a commitment that when it is opened, any support they need will be backdated to when they first sought it. Eithne is now starting her course. She is dependent on social welfare payments and has a daughter to support. As she suffers from dyslexia, she needs a computer and other things to help her to proceed with this course. She does not have them because she does not have the support that she was promised by the Government and the State. I ask the Minister of State to give a specific timeline for when applications will be accepted and indicate whether they will be backdated to provide support for these survivors of abuse and to whom the State has acknowledged it has an obligation.

Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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I am sure the Deputy will acknowledge, as the House and some of those who were victims of abuse in the laundries did, the commitment of the Government to redress what has happened. I have been in this House for well over 30 years and it was an historic occasion for me to hear the Taoiseach of the country stand up just beside where I am now and apologise to those people, many of whom were in the Gallery with other representatives. After many years of the issue being postponed and put on the long finger, this Government came forward and owned up to what was done, providing redress to the people who were unfortunately abused.

The institutions are being established and funding is being made available. The Minister for Education and Skills is anxious that the residential institutions statutory fund be put into operation at the earliest opportunity, and to date contributions of €71 million have been lodged in a special investment account in the National Treasury Management Agency. The Minister is continuing to pursue the realisation of the remaining cash contribution pledge by the religious congregations, so every effort is being made in this regard. Although it took a long time, elements are being put in place correctly and criteria must be established. We are working on this matter continuously and I assure the Deputy and House that there will be no undue delay in implementation. The commitment has been given to this House, the country as a whole and to the victims by the Taoiseach.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Will the Government provide a date?