Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important Bill and I welcome the Minister's presence in the House. The Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill provides for the establishment of a fund to support the needs of survivors of residential institutional child abuse. Some 15,000 former residents will be eligible to apply for support from the fund and every effort is being made to minimise the administration involved. Some former residents have advocated a simpler distribution of the available money.

Following the publication of the Ryan report in May 2009, the congregations, which managed the residential institutions and were party to the 2002 indemnity agreement, were called upon to provide further substantial contributions by way of reparation. The Government agreed to proceed with this legislation to establish a Residential Institutions Statutory Fund, to support the victims of residential institutional abuse, as endorsed by Dáil Éireann. The legislation has been prepared following a public consultation process, which included consultations with groups representing survivors of residential institutional child abuse, the religious congregations and other interested parties.

Those who received an award from the redress board or an award or settlement in court proceedings and who would otherwise have received an award from the redress board will be eligible to apply for assistance from the fund. In response to applications from eligible former residents, the fund can make arrangements for the provision of approved services and may pay grants to assist former residents to avail of approved services.

The Education Finance Board, which was established on a statutory basis in 2006 and is funded via the €12.7 million contribution provided by the religious congregations under the 2002 indemnity agreement and is specifically earmarked for educational support for former residents and their families, has almost completed the performance of its functions. The EFB will be dissolved and its staff will transfer to the statutory fund, which will assume its functions regarding the remaining moneys available to it. I agree with the Minister, Deputy Quinn, that the fund should target resources at services to support former residents' needs, such as counselling, psychological support services, mental health services, health and personal social services, educational services and housing services. The former residents need help, and the fund exists for the purpose of helping them.

The establishment of the fund follows extensive consultations with survivors of residential abuse and a public consultation process. I met some of the survivors groups in the House in the past few days. I have also met them in my constituency when they visited me, as they did other Deputies, to discuss the situation. Seven individuals will operate the fund and it will be overseen by a chief executive answerable to the Committee of Public Accounts. It will fall within the scope of the Ombudsman and freedom of information legislation.

As responsibility for information for survivors will also be taken on by the fund, funding of survivor groups by the Department of Education and Skills will cease. It is important that this transfer of responsibilities is handled in the correct way, with no chance of mistakes or of elements of these responsibilities falling through cracks during the transfer. The fund will have the power to hold and dispose of land or an interest in land, and may acquire, hold and dispose of any other property. Two of its members will be former residents of institutions, which I welcome. The insight and experience of those who were abused in the institutions is essential. While the Residential Institutions Redress Board provides financial compensation to those who suffered abuse while resident in the institutions, the new statutory fund will focus on meeting specified needs that many survivors have as they struggle with the effects of abuse that may have taken place many years ago.

The fund will be financed from the cash contributions, of up to €110 million, offered by the religious congregations. To date, contributions of approximately €20 million have been received from the congregations towards the fund. These and the remaining contributions to be received will be invested in an investment account to be established by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA. The fund will take over the functions of the Education Finance Board for abuse survivors, which will be dissolved. I believe that the costs of the response to residential abuse should be shared on a 50:50 basis, between the taxpayer and those responsible for managing the institutions where the abuse took place. I understand that efforts are continuing to pursue the 50:50 division with the management bodies involved and that the transfer of school infrastructure to the State for the benefit of the taxpayer has been proposed as a mechanism to allow those involved the opportunity to shoulder their share of the costs.

It is my hope that this new fund will provide ongoing support to those who suffered as children in residential care in the State. We have let these people down in the past and we cannot be allowed to fail them again. I am anxious that this legislation be passed and implemented as soon as possible.

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