Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The language is of huge concern, considering Ms Higgins's role. The survivors are in their twilight years and have already been appallingly treated by the State. Such language does a huge disservice to them. I find it hard to believe the contention in the submission that Caranua is unaware of the reports of dissatisfaction on the part of many people in their dealings with the organisation, when these reports have been made available to the general public. Caranua means "new friend" but survivors feel there is no friendship in the organisation.

Why did the management implement the prioritisation policy and how did it believe it could be justified under the legislation? What was the rationale for a general policy which put all reapplicants, whether they have been awarded small or large sums, into the same deprioritisation category? Surely the board's primary function is to accept process and to determine applications. Caranua sent out 2,500 letters on foot of this policy from November 2015. Do the people involved have a right to appeal? Did the organisation inform them of a right to appeal? In September 2016, Caranua accepted that this was an oversight on its part but it has done nothing to deal with the issues. How many of the 2,500 people involved has Caranua written to? Does it intend to contact all of them to clarify their rights? How exactly did Caranua come to the figure of €15,000 as a limit?