Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the members of the committee for scheduling this meeting to facilitate Committee Stage of the Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024 and for their engagement throughout the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. As I noted on Second Stage, I am deeply conscious of the enormous trauma that has been endured by all survivors of abuse and I know that nothing we do now can ever undo the hurt that has been caused. I have met and engaged with survivors of abuse in industrial schools to hear directly from them. I have been and remain deeply moved by the powerful testimony survivors shared with me.

Last June, the Government approved the provision of a package of supports and services for survivors of abuse in residential institutions comprising a number of elements that relate to health, education, advocacy and trauma-informed practice. The development of the new package of supports was informed by consideration of the reports of a consultative forum that comprised survivors of residential institutions who were supported by professional facilitators. It was also informed by other relevant reports and submissions, including the Facing the Future Together conference report, produced by the Christine Buckley Centre, Right of Place Second Chance, Barnardos, One in Four and other relevant stakeholders.

This marks a new phase of the State providing ongoing support to survivors and builds on the response to the issue to date. The response, which included the establishment of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the Education Finance Board and Caranua, has involved expenditure of approximately €1.5 billion, including direct redress payments and other supports for survivors amounting to approximately €1.1 billion.

This Bill has two purposes, namely, to enable the delivery of health and education supports to survivors of abuse in residential institutions, such as industrial schools and reformatories, and to provide for the dissolution of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, also known as Caranua.

Section 4 provides for the delivery of a package health supports and services to former residents which will allow them access to GP services, drugs, medications, home nursing and home help, dental, ophthalmic and aural services, counselling, chiropody, podiatry and physiotherapy. This entitlement is a medical card for life and it is not subject to means test or to review.

In recognition of the fact that approximately one third of survivors of abuse in residential institutions live outside the State, section 5 of the Bill provides for the making of a one-off health support payment of €3,000 to survivors who are resident abroad in lieu of the enhanced medical card to support their health needs. Like the health supports, this is the same approach as was taken in the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023.

With regard to education supports, section 6 of the Bill provides for the payment, on application by a survivor and subject to criteria determined under the Bill, of a grant to assist in engaging in education. Survivors will only be required to demonstrate they have registered for a course and paid whatever fee applies. They will be free to spend the grant as they see fit to support their studies, whether to purchase a laptop, fund travel costs or purchase necessary materials. This scheme will also ensure that survivors are not required to pay the student contribution charge where it would otherwise apply. These grants will be in addition to the wider range of enhanced supports in place for those seeking to engage in further and higher education, including the free fees initiative, the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, student grant scheme and the back to education allowance, as well as initiatives such as Springboard.

Part 3 of the Bill contains a number of standard provisions that relate to the dissolution of Caranua. Caranua's purpose was to disburse funding supports to survivors in areas such as health, housing and education from a ring-fenced fund of €110 million, plus interest of €1.38 million, that was provided by the relevant congregations following the publication of the Ryan report in 2009. As the funding available to Caranua was finite in nature and could not, under the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012, be supplemented by Exchequer funding, Caranua began winding down its operations in 2018 and effectively closed in March 2021. It is therefore necessary to provide for Caranua's dissolution.

I draw the committee's attention to two sections in this Part. Section 14 provides for the transfer of Caranua's records to the Department and the use of those records for a number of specified purposes. I will be very clear. These records do not include accounts or testimonies relating to survivors' experiences in the residential institution of the type that are held by the Residential Institutions Redress Board or the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Caranua's records relate solely to its role of disbursing funding to survivors, including day-to-day administrative records and records relating to applications made by survivors.

These data and records will continue to be subject to both GDPR and freedom of information legislation. Survivors will continue to be entitled to exercise their GDPR and FOI rights, including seeking a copy of their data. They will also be subject to the National Archives Act 1986. The preservation of the important records of the commission and of the redress board is being considered in the context of the establishment of the new national centre for research and remembrance.

Section 17 of the Bill provides for the use of whatever funding is transferred to the Minister when Caranua is dissolved and requires that this funding is utilised for purposes benefiting survivors. However, very limited funding of approximately €60,000 remains available to Caranua at this time.

Part 4 of the Bill contains a number of miscellaneous provisions, including provisions relating to data and for the amendment of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 and the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023. While I acknowledge that it has not been possible to accept all of the recommendations made by the committee arising from the pre-legislative scrutiny process, I note a number of areas where I have sought to progress the issues raised. Regarding data, my Department has engaged further with the Data Protection Commission on the committee's recommendations and the Bill's provisions related to data processing and data protection have been further strengthened as a result.

Regarding engaging with the UK authorities to seek to ensure that any payments to survivors resident in UK do not impact their entitlement to means-tested payments, the Department is engaging with relevant colleagues in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Irish Embassy in the UK to progress this. Embassy officials are liaising with their counterparts in the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs. I have also written to the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in this regard.

Regarding the recommendation that an interdepartmental group be established to oversee the delivery of the new supports for survivors, I can assure the committee that the Department is engaging with relevant colleagues in the Department of Health, the HSE and the Department of children on this, and intends to establish appropriate structures to ensure the effective delivery of the supports.

As I have already noted, last June the Government also approved the delivery of initiatives related to advocacy and trauma-informed practice. Although these do not require a legislative basis and are therefore not reflected in the Bill, they represent critical elements of the overall package. Indeed regarding advocacy, the consultative forum's report highlighted the particular challenges that survivors face in navigating access to public services.

The Department of Education therefore entered into a grant-funded agreement with Sage Advocacy, an independent advocacy organisation with a strong track record in providing advocacy support to older people, vulnerable adults and healthcare patients to develop information, support and advocacy services to assist individual survivors in engaging with and assessing relevant services and supports. As part of this arrangement, Sage is required to develop and implement a communication and outreach plan to ensure that as many survivors as possible are made aware of all relevant supports including the new supports to be provided under this Bill. Sage has already begun to roll out this service and is engaging with survivors and survivor groups to promote awareness of its availability.

The extent to which survivors continue to live with the trauma of the past has also been highlighted. The need for service providers to receive training in trauma-informed practice has been identified. For that reason, the Department of Education will arrange for the development of a training course and related training materials to be disseminated to service providers across the Civil Service and public service. It is intended to develop and roll out this initiative before the year end.

Given the importance of delivering to survivors the health and education support outlined in the Bill, I intend to progress its passage through both Houses of the Oireachtas as quickly as possible.