Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am sharing time with Deputies Fitzpatrick, Anne Ferris and Feighan.

I am thankful to have the opportunity to speak on this very important Bill. The Bill aims to provide for the establishment of a statutory fund to support the survivors of institutional child abuse. The Bill is necessitated by the long-standing failure of the State to take proper care of its most vulnerable citizens. For decades, the well-being of children deemed to require care was delegated to religious institutions. The statutory fund, which is the subject of the Bill, will be financed by the contributions from religious congregations. This fund is but one element of the State's response to the litany of horrific abuses exposed in recent years. The first and most important element of the response is to put in place a structure to ensure best practice is followed in every setting where children are found to ensure their safety and well-being. Abuse survivors will agree with me that is the first step in any form of redress. I agree great strides have been made in that respect across State institutions in recent years, but a huge volume of work remains to be done.

The second step in achieving redress involves ascertaining the damage done, if the depth and extent of such damage can ever be properly assessed. To this end, over 14,000 awards have been made to abuse survivors.

The third element of address involves this Bill by way of taking care of the longer-term needs of the survivors. To this end, the statutory fund provided for in the Bill is only available to those who receive an award from the Residential Institutions Redress Board. However, unlike that board, the statutory fund will not make financial awards to former residents; instead, it will seek to provide approved services or grants to allow people to avail of such services.

Many Members on all sides of the House have received representations from former residents of residential institutions now located overseas. It is important that their voices be heard also. It is no wonder that many former residents of institutions left Ireland's shores as soon as they possibly could given the treatment meted out unfairly to them at the hands of those in the Government appointed to look after them. Thus, it is especially important that such people be taken care of through services they will need in the coming years.

The making available of educational services to both former residents and their children was an important role of the Education Finance Board. Proper education can never take place in an environment full of fear. For people whose place of education was also the scene of their abuse, there could never be a love of education. Increasingly, a lack of education proves to be a barrier to well-paying jobs. It was imperative that the cycle of poverty was broken. Educating former residents and their children was a key tool in tackling a monstrous wrong. However, in creating the present fund, some survivors have expressed the belief that the fund available should be confined to former residents. Thus, it was decided that only former residents would be able to avail of the statutory fund. Disenchantment was expressed by some correspondents in regard to groups representing survivors of abuse. They cited a lack of accountability and a lack of a mandate for such groups. In 2011, the Department funded five groups representing survivors in Ireland and three in the United Kingdom. Last year, the Department of Education and Skills spent over €42,000 funding groups in Ireland and over €227,000 funding groups in the United Kingdom.

The wrong done to the children in question can never be righted. The fear, dread and foreboding of their childhoods can never be eroded. Their negative memories can never be replaced with positive ones, and the trust, so utterly shattered for them, can never be rebuilt. However, exposing the wrongs done to them in the State-run institutions or those run by religious orders appointed by the State was only ever a first step in telling the horrific stories. The longer-term care of the former residents is the focus of this Bill. The services offered through the statutory fund will prove invaluable to the 15,000 former residents of the Irish institutions, wherever in the world they may find themselves.

See this speech in context