Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 2: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if consideration has been given to using the database of survivors of residential abuse who applied for compensation to the Redress Board as a way of directly consulting with them on the drafting of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill, 2012. [31185/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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My Department undertook a comprehensive consultation process on the proposed fund. Press advertisements invited views, which could be forwarded by post, e-mail or by a freefone service, which was operated by Barnardos. Officials also met with groups representing survivors of residential institutional abuse, the congregations and a number of other interested parties.

Under existing legislation, it was not open to my Department to use the database as outlined in the question. The current Bill empowers the redress board to provide awardees' names, addresses and dates of birth to the statutory fund. This will enable the fund to verify applicants' entitlements to apply. That is the only purpose for which the information can be used. The Attorney General's office has advised that any direct unsolicited communication with survivors could be open to challenge as it might encroach on their right to privacy under the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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This is one of the suggestions put forward by the Munster survivors group which I considered to be practical. It is a pity the legislation cannot be used in that way. One of the major criticisms of some of the groups about the redress process up to now is about how to get the message out. They are saying the same about this scheme. It is probably a smaller cohort but one of my major concerns is that it will compound the hurt if people who went through the courts or the redress process will not be informed. We know from experience that part of the difficulty is that many of the survivors of these horrible places have literacy problems, and the issue is to get around that. I considered this a practical way of doing it. If it cannot be done, we will have to consider legislation on it in the future.

People are also saying that they feel sidelined by the process. I accept that the Minister met with a number of groups. Who were the groups the Minister's officials met? Many of the people who went through this process are not involved in groups and part of the problem is how to take their views on board. We need some form of outreach in that regard.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I appreciate what the Deputy is saying. I met with groups before I was Minister and when I was education spokesperson for the Labour Party. I also met constituents who were victims but who did not want me to write to their home address. They had concealed it from the rest of their family and wanted to preserve their privacy. Then there were individuals who did not wish to be associated with any group. There are a number of groups and they do not necessarily all have the same opinions and views on general matters of policy. We are doing our best. This matter has been ongoing for a long time. The Committee Stage of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill is being taken on Thursday by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Sherlock, and some of these matters will arise in detail then.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The difficulty is to try to get the information across. I accept there will be detailed discussion on this on Thursday but I would like to be convinced that everybody who is entitled to access this fund will be made aware of it. The issue is to fill that gap and ensure we do not compound the hurt. Can the Minister assure us that every effort will be made? Aside from advertisements and so forth, we must think outside the box on this. Some people suggested using YouTube or using embassy staff in terms of people abroad but we must ensure that everyone who is entitled to these supports under the statutory fund have access to them.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I share the Deputy's view in principle. I can tell him that 258 individual responses from the public were received and they broke down as follows: 135 telephone communications, 103 written or e-mail submissions from individuals and 20 written submissions from different organisations.

The report on the consultation process within the Department is available on the Department's website but if the type of persons the Deputy is talking about have literacy problems they may experience difficulties getting access to the Internet. After so many years and with so many support groups having been in place, anybody could, and some have, gone to a solicitor seeking help from the original fund. There have been different avenues but we will continue to do all that we can to try to highlight this to ensure that nobody is left behind simply because they did not hear of it.