Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tuigim féin agus an Roinn Oideachais cé chomh tábhachtach is atá an cheist seo. Tá sé thar a bheith tábhachtach. Tá an-chuid oibre déanta go dtí an pointe seo agus táim buíoch den Teachta as an seans é sin a chur os comhair an Teach seo.

I thank the Deputy and I want to acknowledge his personal engagement and interest in this, and I am fully cognisant of the importance of the body of work ongoing in relation to this. I want to say very clearly at the outset that the views of survivors of institutional abuse must be, and are, central when considering future supports and services to meet their needs. For that reason, as the Deputy will be aware, the Department of Education has been engaged in a structured process of consultation with survivors and survivor groups over a number of years, as he has outlined. This process began with the engagement by the Department of professionally qualified facilitators to undertake a series of consultations with survivors on the themes and issues of most specific concern to them.

The facilitators engaged with more than 100 people and held more than 30 meetings. These meetings enabled survivors to reflect on their experiences, the State's response to the issue of institutional abuse and to make any recommendations they might wish to make. This phase of the process resulted in the submission to the Department of Education of a report entitled Consultations with Survivors of Institutional Abuse and Themes and Issues to be Addressed by a Survivor Led Consultation Group. The report identified a number of priority issues for survivors, including the health needs of an aging population and the need to make services easier to access.

Phase 2 of the process involved the establishment of a survivor-led consultative forum to further consider the themes and issues identified. This was again supported by facilitators who were engaged by the Department of Education. A method the Deputy outlined was for the forum to personally engage with survivors in Ireland, and indeed in the United Kingdom, and to hear directly from them. Officials from my Department have also met with the forum on a number of occasions to discuss its work. I would like to acknowledge the commitment and insight of the survivors who have participated in the consultation process, as well as the support and significant expertise provided by the facilitators involved in the process.

The final report of the forum was submitted to the Department last year. The report has provided a very good insight into the areas where survivors feel that supports are required into the future. As the Deputy will be aware, there are also a number of other published reports highlighting the ongoing needs of survivors and the lifelong difficulties they encounter due to their childhood experiences in residential care. These reports, alongside other relevant submissions, are currently being considered by the Department with input from colleagues from other Departments. Significant resources continue to be devoted to the progressing of this work and will feed into the consideration of proposals to Government in this context.

In parallel with this process, the Department has also been engaging with officials from other relevant Departments to identify existing services which are of particular relevance to survivors and to examine how these services can support survivors into the future. This engagement is also feeding into consideration of proposals to Government which will be progressed in the shortest timeframe possible.

I would also like to note that as part of the State's response to individual's experience of stress as a result of trauma and abuse in childhood, a free professional and confidential national counselling service is operated by the HSE. Full details of this are available on the HSE's website.

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