Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

They are two separate cases, as the Deputy knows. I am not responsible for the lady pursuing the case to the Supreme Court — that is her right, so I have no comment to make about that. However, when the issue arose following her High Court case I made it very clear on the record of this House that we had asked the State Claims Agency, the statutory body that deals with these cases, to approach the issues of costs in a measured and sensitive way. The issue today was that she would lose her house. I was putting on the record that the lady was told last spring on the record at a very early meeting that arrangements would have to be made regarding costs because she lost her case. There was no question whatsoever of her losing her house. The solicitor came back to advise that she would go to the Supreme Court, as is her right, so I cannot get involved. As I said, the High Court has put a stay on the costs order anyway, so the issue does not arise until the end of the Supreme Court stage. However, the house issue does not arise at all.

While I know the Deputy knows the answer, to avoid confusion let me say the State was liable jointly for children it took into care and that was the point. We were liable for that. If we were going to apologise to them, say we would compensate them and set up a redress board for them, the ultimate number was a matter for the independent redress board to look at the cases and decide whether we were liable and it was for us to pay them the costs. The Deputy can either agree or disagree with that. I know the Deputy believes we should have——

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