Ms Sylda Langford:

I thank the Chairman of the joint committee, Deputy Joanna Tuffy, for the invitation to attend this meeting.

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to address the committee in my capacity as chairperson designate of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board. As I only became aware of this appointment to this unremunerated position over a week ago, I am still in the initial stages of reflection as to the challenges presented by the appointment and how best to give leadership in this position. I will speak briefly on three main points. These are: my background and experience in social services; my vision for the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund over the next four years; and my role as chairperson of the board.

With regard to my background and experience in social services, I retired just over three years ago, having spent most of my work life in the public service and the Civil Service. I have a professional background in social policy and social work, having graduated from University College Cork and the London School of Economics. Prior to retirement, I was the director general of the Office of the Minister for Children in the Department of Health and Children. Previously, I was an assistant secretary in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform for nine years and prior to that had worked in the Department of Social Welfare, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Eastern Health Board and the National Social Service Council, now called the Citizens Information Board.

My work experience has included policy development, legislative work, programme development and implementation, investigative work and front-line service delivery across a range of social services. I trained as a counsellor with Relate counselling service, where I was a volunteer counsellor for many years. I also worked as a volunteer counsellor with Parents Under Stress, now called Parentline, for some years.

During my years as a social worker with the Eastern Health Board, I was mainly involved in child protection work. I am therefore fully aware of the damage done to human beings when things go wrong for them in their childhood and the challenges posed for many of them in making their way through life. As director general of the Office of the Minister for Children, I was present at many of the meetings between the Government and the survivors of residential institutions following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, commonly known as the Ryan report, on 20 May 2009. The suffering and loss articulated at those meetings was palpable and painful.

The Government, in accepting the full list of recommendations in the Ryan report, took the decision to draft an implementation plan with the expressed aim of responding to each of the 20 individual recommendations. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs was asked by the Taoiseach to prepare this implementation plan. As director general of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, the work on the preparation of the implementation plan came within my area of responsibility. The implementation plan was published in July 2009 and the establishment of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board flows from this implementation plan. The experience of working on this plan has given me an insight into the challenges facing the new board to fund effectively the provision of servicesto the former residents of institutions.

My vision for the board is that the board members and staff will work together to deliver on what is required under the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 in a considered, timely and effective manner. As four of the nine board members will be people who were resident in institutions, the board and staff will have available to them insight and advice which will be of valued assistance.

Under the Act, the board has two key functions, the first of which is to make arrangements for the provision of approved services to support the needs of former residents, including mental health, counselling and psychological support services, health and personal social services, education services and housing support services, including adaptations or improvements of real property but not including financial aid for the purchase, mortgage or charge of real property. The second key function of the board is to pay a grant to former residents in order that they may avail of an approved service. The board will be required to do its work in a manner that promotes the principles of equity, consistency and transparency. In addition to its two key functions, the board must also make information available, promote understanding of the effects of abuse on former residents among those involved in the provision of approved services and publicly available services to former residents, carry out evaluations of the effectiveness of services and determine appropriate criteria.

In order to achieve its vision, the board will employ a CEO, for whom a recruitment process is under way, and three employees of the Education Finance Board, which is being dissolved, with the transfer of property, rights and liabilities to the new board. Decisions on individual applications to the board will be made by, or on behalf of, the CEO. The legislation also provides for the appointment by the Minister of an independent appeals officer.

Since my retirement, I have been appointed chairperson of the Citizens Information Board, known as the CIB, a member of the board of the children's detention school in Oberstown, where I chair the child protection sub-committee, and an adjunct professor in the school of applied social sciences in UCD. Through these appointments I have gained experience in providing leadership outside of formal employment roles. I have also acquired insights into the importance of good corporate governance in terms of direction, control and leadership of an organisation. Since the Residential Institutions Statutory Board is a new entity, the first challenge will be to ensure the necessary corporate infrastructure is put in place to ensure an effective and accountable service for the former residents of institutions.

As it is just over a week since I was invited to act as chairperson, in the coming weeks I have to read further into this role and to acquaint myself fully with the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, 2012. I intend to fulfil my responsibilities as chairperson by working closely with the CEO and staff, and relying on the expertise, judgment and support of the other eight members of the board and the support and assistance of our sponsoring Department, the Department of Education and Skills.

I thank members for their attention. I look forward to the challenge presented to me by this appointment and I sincerely hope and trust that the former residents will truly benefit from the implementation of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund.