Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mar is eol don Aire, baineann scéal fada leis na daoine óga a bhí tráth sna scoileanna cónaithe, leis an bhforéigean a rinneadh orthu, leis an obair gan rogha a bhí ann, leis an saol deacair a bhí ann agus leis an dualgas atá ar an Stát feabhas a chur ar a gcuid coinníollacha sa lá atá inniu ann.

The Minister is familiar with the long history of trying to address the abuse, forced labour and difficult life circumstances of the residents of residential institutions. The State has, to a greater or lesser extent, been trying to get to grips with this for many years. The issue that particularly concerns me is the follow on from Caranua, and the lack of action that has taken place in the past short few years. We know that what was first the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund was set up in 2012, and was later renamed Caranua on foot of, if I recall correctly, some of the draft recommendations of the Ryan report being worked on at the time.

The context of this, of course, is that many tens of thousands of children in residential institutions were subject to the most horrific abuse. Their childhoods were effectively stolen from them. Relationships with family were sundered, and in many instances they were forced to undertake significant labour. This left many of those children and survivors, many of whom have unfortunately passed away, in circumstances of hardship, emotional trauma, poverty and ill health. That is the legacy many of these institutions have left. A number of difficulties have flowed from that. Many survivors were dissatisfied with the way Caranua has carried out its business. They felt badly let down and even re-traumatised in some instances, with claims being closed where there was no real basis for closing.

However, the part I want to focus on is the fact that after Caranua was wound down, there was supposed to be a follow on. A group of survivors met with a group of facilitators appointed by the Minister's Department late in 2019 and came up with a number of recommendations. Those recommendations centred around fundamental things such as enhanced medical care or an enhanced medical card, housing entitlements, or a pension, as was the case with the survivors of the Magdalen institutions. Those proposals were submitted late in 2019, which is now more than three years ago. I understand there was one further meeting in late 2020, which the Minister was part of, but there has been nothing since then. They feel badly let down. They feel they are in the dark. I have raised with this with the Minister a number of times and she has informed me there is work going on behind the scenes. However, as far as they are concerned, nothing is happening, and time is not immaterial here. Most of these are older people, some of them are in very poor health, and of course they are worried. As time goes on more and more survivors will pass on and will not be in a position to benefit from any proposals that need to be brought forward.

The vacuum, which is there at the moment, is completely unacceptable. They feel very hurt by some of the issues that arose out of Caranua, and how that was handled. That has been catalogued and reported, but they feel hurt now by the lack of progress, and the lack of feedback they are getting.

I have a final point before I allow the Minister to respond. There is a particular category I will flag, namely, those survivors now living in Britain and elsewhere who feel completely out of the loop. What is the state of play and when are we going to finally get some feedback from those recommendations?

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