Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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73. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of external companies or organisations or bodies that Caranua have engaged for a fee since its inception in tabular form; the fees that these entities have charged; the source the fees were paid from; the justification provided from Caranua for the services of these entities; his views on whether these charges could have been avoided by proper governance of Caranua in view of recent revelations regarding Caranua; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24670/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Caranua, the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, is an independent statutory body established pursuant to the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012. Section 7(7) of that Act provides that the Board, as it considers necessary for the performance of its functions and with the approval of the Minister, may enter into contracts with persons and engage consultants or advisers under terms and conditions that the Board considers appropriate. Section 7(7) also provides that sums payable to persons, consultants or advisers shall be paid by the Board out of moneys at its disposal.  

Details of the contracts and consultancies, etc., approved under section 7(7) since the establishment of the organisation in 2013 are set out in the attached tabular statement. Consideration of the items listed in the following table was undertaken following receipt of business cases from Caranua.

All of Caranua’s costs, including those relating to contracts and consultancies, are charged on the NTMA investment account which is funded by religious contributions. This arises from the provision in section 30(1) of the 2012 Act which states that the “expenses and other costs incurred by the Agency under this Act shall, subject to the approval of the Board, be charged on the investment account to the benefit of the Agency”. 

Approvals issued by the Minister for Education and Skills under section 7(7) of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012

Note: Where the box for contractor/consultant is blank it signifies that approval in principle was given by the Minister for Education and Skills for Caranua to commence a procurement process for the particular service.