Ms Siobh?n Byrne:

Right of Place Second Chance was founded to support those persons who were placed into the religious industrial schools and who suffered physical, mental, and sexual abuse over many decades. We are Ireland's largest organisation that offers support to survivors and their families following the 1999 apology by the State and its acknowledgement that such abuse of innocent children took place and that thousands suffered that abuse at the hands of those religious orders tasked with managing those institutions. We provide support and advocacy across Ireland, the UK, and further afield through our dedicated volunteers and professional staff. Our aim is to help improve the lives of those who suffered in institutions as children, and many who continue to suffer in adult life.

Right of Place Second Chance welcomes the general scheme of supports for survivors of residential institutional abuse Bill 2023, which aims to provide for the provision of new supports to survivors. Several of the reports and detailed documents have been commissioned by the organisation over the past 25 years. The voices of survivors recorded the views of individual survivors pertaining to their long-term needs. The Right of Place Second Chance vision document was compiled in 2015, which enabled our organisation to present to the Government, its views and learnt experiences of what survivors and their families required by way of supports at that time. Given the general recognition, acceptance, and understanding of the adverse effects that institutional childhood abuse has had on the lives of survivors, the amount of existing academic literature exploring the survivor-specific community remains whole inadequate. One of our key findings established over the years of offering support services is the urgent requirement of a robust and fully comprehensive review of the long-term care afforded to survivors.

We have called on the Government over many years to implement policy change and to make a genuine commitment to improving the lives of such survivors of institutional abuse and their families through meaningful long-term intervention as a way of ensuring the commitment to the State's response and promises to this cohort of survivors. In 2020, at a conference in Trinity College Dublin, we, along with all other stakeholders attending, presented our vision to what had changed in the 20 years since the State apology and what remained to be done by Government to meet its commitments and fulfil its promise to survivors. One of the key recommendations of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse stated that educational supports for survivors and their families should continue to help address many of the disadvantages suffered.

In line with all stakeholders, State agencies, leading academics, and the other survivor groups, we are calling on the Government to implement the following provisions. Regarding healthcare, the granting of the medical card under the Health (Amendment) Act 1996 will recognise the ongoing medical challenges facing survivors today. This will recognise the life-long effects of institutional abuse and afford survivors the opportunity to live their remaining years with assured healthcare, particularly considering their age profile. We request that the Government make available to survivors the automatic entitlement to the contributory State pension upon reaching pensionable age. Also, prioritising social housing and giving precedence to survivors regarding its allocation would recognise the adverse effects of their institutionalisation and abuse as children, which has led to low levels of home ownership and homelessness. The housing inequality experienced by survivors must be recognised and amended. Regarding education, we request that the State provide access to funding for education, training, and supports which would enable families of survivors, many of whom are typically from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, to break the cycle of poverty which was in part, caused by institutionalisation.

What survivors seek and deserve is justice, recognition of their long-standing pain and suffering, and not merely the implementation of wholly ineffective short-term measures. It is of critical importance to survivors that the life-long negative impact, which institutionalisation has had on their lives and the lives of their families, is fully recognised. Their healthcare, housing, and pensionable needs have not currently been guaranteed for the remainder of their lives. We acknowledge that no Government can change what happened to the survivors of industrial schools, but it can help to change what the future of survivors and that of their families will be. Sufferers continue to feel their needs are being overlooked. We had previously called on the Government to introduce life-long measures as a final way of affirming the recognition of the wrongs committed against survivors, and to display genuine commitment to justice and healing. We now look forward to helping survivors access these new supports and entitlements.