Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The subject matter of this Adjournment debate is very much related to the Minister of State's reply to the previous matter. It concerns residential care which had been part and parcel of this State for the first 70 years of the last century. That form of residential care was closed down in 1970.

My request to the Minister for Education and Science is that she add Bethany Home, located on Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, to the list of institutions in the Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002. I am seeking this specifically at this time because the Department of Health and Children examined some papers in its archives earlier this year and concluded that Bethany Home was subject to a regulatory and inspection function in accordance with the requirements of Schedule 4 to the Act. Subsequently, the Minister for Education and Science was informed of the discovery.

I will read the relevant section of the letter sent to a solicitor whose client is one of the former residents of Bethany Home. It states:

Dear Sir,

I refer to your letter dated 19 July 2007.

This Department contacted the Department of Education on 14 May 2007 regarding your client. We confirmed that we had examined papers in relation to the Bethany Home, Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6. We also advised the Department of Education that they may wish to give consideration to the inclusion of this institution on the Schedule of the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002 as there is evidence of a regulatory or inspection function as set out in Schedule 4 of the Act.

The inclusion of institutions on the schedule of the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002 is a matter for the Department of Education.

That letter was sent by the child welfare and protection policy unit of the Department of Health and Children to the Department of Education and Science. As it states, inclusion of any new institution on the Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act is the sole prerogative of the Minister for Education and Science.

When the Act was progressing through the Oireachtas five years ago, I raised the issue of Bethany Home, which was largely a home for Protestant orphans, and requested that the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, include it in the Schedule. At that time, I possessed only anecdotal evidence to support my arguments of abuse at the home. I also only had anecdotal evidence regarding departmental supervision and regulation. Now, however, the Department of Health and Children has confirmed my viewpoint and is making to the Department of Education and Science the same case I made five years ago.

Recent disclosures indicate that, to date, over 16,000 complaints have been received by the Residential Institutions Redress Board in respect of the abuse of children in residential institutions that were subject to State regulation and supervision. Over 9,000 of these have been processed to a conclusion, with average compensation in the order of €67,000 per person. Some €750 million has already been paid and the total sum is likely to be in excess of €1 billion.

It would be very harsh if the Minister for Education and Science were to close the door to the inclusion of further institutions such as Bethany Home when new information comes to light. The children from Bethany Home, who are now elderly, are entitled to recognition by the State that they were detained in an institution in which they were abused and in which they were neglected by the State, which had a legal responsibility to supervise and to ensure that their welfare was protected.

The Minister should do the right thing by these children and announce that Bethany Home will be referred to the Residential Institutions Redress Board.

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