David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In some or all cases, I understand there may be difficulties in the presentation of evidence. I am saying that, in process terms, the percentage of cases for which evidence was unavailable was not 5%, 10%, or 20%, it was 56%, 50% and 55%. That brings me to the point that Deputy Munster was making. There are a number of survivors who may get nothing.

I come to those 22 survivors who applied outside the statutory timeframes, and I accept that, but that said, these are people who were the victims of abuse. They got around to applying outside the statutory timeframes. Mr. O'Callaghan talked about weaknesses when the fund was set up in the first place. When we previously looked at this, there were issues on how the first tranche of money was spent. Perhaps mistakes were made in how that money was spent because a small number of survivors got money very quickly meaning that the pot of money available for others may not have been what it should have been. There were issues about that.

There have also been issues about lapses of controls in many areas, including the 56%, 50% and 55% to which the Comptroller and Auditor General referred. We are now left in a situation where there are some people who may not get any compensation whatsoever.

Can I come back to these 22 people? Mr. O'Callaghan said that Caranua will be reviewing all of these cases. Can he tell me what that means?