Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 7: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if provision will be made for late applications submitted to the Residential Institutions Redress Board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25209/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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In accordance with the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002, applicants had a period of three years in which to submit an application to the redress board, that is, until 15 December 2005, nearly six years ago. However, section 8 of the Act allowed the board to extend the period for receipt of applications in exceptional circumstances. The board considers individually each submission as to why an application was not lodged in time. The recently enacted Residential Institutions Redress (Amendment) Act 2011 removed the board's power to accept late applications received on or after 17 September 2011. It is now over eight and a half years since the board was established and five and half years after the initial closing date, and I am satisfied that sufficient time has been given to potential applicants to apply to the redress board.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. I think it was in July that we discussed that legislation, which was taken through the House by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon. What the Minister says is correct; the process has been ongoing for a number of years. When we were discussing that legislation on Second Stage and Committee Stage, I asked whether provision could be made, with the establishment of the statutory fund, that where in exceptional circumstances a late application was received which met the criteria, provision could be made for it to be processed. I envisaged this as a safety valve, a mechanism that would not need to be activated as all applicants who met the criteria would, I hoped, have submitted their applications by 16 June last. In the meantime, in August and September, I received correspondence and telephone calls from a number of people who have been involved with survivors of the residential schools - people who had unfortunately been abused - and they told me that the trend in the past, when there were deadlines for submitting applications, had been that late applications were typically from people who were the most vulnerable survivors of the industrial school system. That is why I am worried there may still be a small cohort of people who are very vulnerable and who, unfortunately, will not have submitted their applications on time. I ask that some mechanism be established in the forthcoming legislation to ensure such applications, if they are submitted, can be processed.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I remind the Minister and Deputies that there is a one minute limit on supplementary questions.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Since this House signed off on that legislation and announced that the scheme would close on 16 September, there have been 2,767 applications, which are being processed. Some have been accepted, some rejected, and so on. In deference to the time restrictions I will offer to write to the Deputy with the details. In all honesty, a reasonable window of time has been provided. The fact is that the announcement of the closing date of 16 September effectively produced nearly 3,000 fresh applications a number of years after the publicity surrounding the board had died down.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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We have all talked to different groups and individuals who have been through the process, and many of them do not want to go down the road of seeking redress, but they may at some stage. Mentally, they are not in a position to do so at this stage. It seems so unfair that a person could be entitled to redress on a particular date but not after that. We accept the wrongs done to these people, yet we have decided to close the scheme on an arbitrary date. Many people who have actually been through the process say they regret going down that road. People are still trying to work out in their own heads whether to seek redress. There needs to be a window in which they can do this.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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During the discussion on the legislation, I asked the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, if he could ask the officials of the redress board to ensure the final closing date of 16 September would be widely publicised outside our own island. Does the Minister have available to him the number of those applications that came from outside our own jurisdiction?

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I do not know but I will communicate that information to the Deputy. A number of legal firms have placed advertisements in Irish journals in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, as Members will be aware. Even if a person was so badly damaged from his or her experience as to be unable to make a proper application there was no shortage of lawyers prepared to do it. It had to be brought to an end. Since we stated the final date to be 16 September, an extra 2,676 applications have been submitted.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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At that time, in discussions with the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, I asked that the Irish network abroad, through the different representative associations, would engage with this because they might know from among their membership people who might be potential applicants. That would be better than depending on lawyers and advertising to propagate the closing date.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I had those discussions. There was a conference in July in the Clock Tower in the Department at which there were representatives from the Federation of Irish Societies.