Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

In accordance with the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002, applicants had a period of three years in which to submit an application to the redress board, that is, until 15 December 2005, nearly six years ago. However, section 8 of the Act allowed the board to extend the period for receipt of applications in exceptional circumstances. The board considers individually each submission as to why an application was not lodged in time. The recently enacted Residential Institutions Redress (Amendment) Act 2011 removed the board's power to accept late applications received on or after 17 September 2011. It is now over eight and a half years since the board was established and five and half years after the initial closing date, and I am satisfied that sufficient time has been given to potential applicants to apply to the redress board.

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