Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Education and Skills is aware that I recently tabled legislation to amend the residential institutions statutory fund. The fund was charged with assisting and administering some sort of redress to the people who had experienced abuse in residential institutions. Subsequent to that, there was an explosion in the media, particularly on the radio airwaves, concerning some of these issues when the CEO of the Caranua scheme, Ms Mary Higgins, addressed some of those concerns by survivors in the most derogatory manner possible. She actually succeeded in adding to the victimisation and trauma experienced by already traumatised people. The narrative put forward by the CEO of Caranua was one in which survivors of institutional abuse were called "these people", that they "will never be happy" and other terms such as that, which are highly inappropriate. It was a distortion of the truth and an unashamed attempt by her to pass the blame for the failings of Caranua onto the victims and survivors themselves. The lack of empathy and the derogatory characterisation is proof of what those survivors have been saying. Rather than helping them, the Caranua process has served to revictimise them.

During the debate on my Bill, the mismanagement of the scheme was highlighted by Deputies from all sides of the House. It is clear from representations that we all receive in our offices from applicants and from the appeal officers' annual report that there are hundreds if not thousands of applicants who have been affected by delays, arbitrary cut-offs, an inconsistent approach from advisers and rudeness in many instances. For example, people have been told that it is not a sweet shop. When one complainant got on to my office, she said that when she was issued a quote for replacement windows, she was told by the Caranua staff member that he could have had a six-bedroom house done for that amount of money and that he was going to have to go and seriously get that checked out. The woman said she felt like her word was being questioned and that he was making her out to be a liar. Having waited all that time even to make the application, to be treated like that was really hard to take. When survivors brought those stories onto the airwaves, the CEO of Caranua dismissed them. However, we know that what the survivors are saying is true because of what they have said to us and because of the way that our offices have been treated when we have had to try to make representations.

Does the Minister think it is satisfactory for the person who is the public face of Caranua to speak about people like that? What action has the Minister taken to address the situation? I do not believe it is acceptable for anybody to behave like that, but for somebody who got a €10,000 pay increase from the very fund she is supposed to be administering, bringing her salary up to more than €87,000 per annum, to still express views like that is absolutely reprehensible as far as I am concerned. Clearly, what we have here is the sort of continuation of the hard-line approach being adopted by the State to survivors which has been evident in the Magdalen laundries and in the exclusion of the Bethany homes from the mother and baby home inquiries. I do not think it is acceptable for the Minister or for other members of the Government to allow those comments to go unchecked. If he does not challenge it, he is only furthering and adding to the damage.

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