Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept everything Deputy Daly has said. He said it in good faith. People, families, children and young people have been through enough. This is not to say that the scheme in question is limited. The current situation where people from south Kerry were allowed into scheme occurred because we did a random sample audit of 50 files, then we did a complete look back over that five year period. That look back is now happening in north Kerry. As soon as we have the results from north Kerry, I expect more children to be eligible for the scheme.

Importantly, I also point out that as evidenced by the additional eligible children in north Kerry who have already been accepted into the scheme, any further appropriate cases in Kerry recommended by the HSE will be given full consideration by the State Claims Agency. Aside from the inclusion of such individual eligible cases it is not intended there will be any fundamental change to the compensation scheme introduced by the Government relating to the Maskey report, that is, the terms of reference of it. However, when we get the results of the north Kerry full look back currently being conducted I expect that more people will be eligible for the scheme.

In regard to the scheme, the latest information available to me is that 176 applications to the scheme have taken place with initial payments made. In regard to settlements, 23 mediations have taken place to date, of which 18 have been successfully resolved and others are ongoing. The Department, in conjunction with the HSE, continues to closely monitor developments in relation to CAMHS in north Kerry including any evolving issues in relation to the State Claims Agency compensation scheme.

As I already indicated, it is open to anyone to take a case privately but as the Deputy said, it is a non-adversarial scheme. It is good that so many people have decided to take up the scheme without going through that adversarial process. The scheme is not closed and we have to await the outcome of north Kerry.

See this speech in context