Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his opening remarks. Fianna Fáil acknowledges the need for a deadline to be set. The board has been working for nearly nine years. We welcome the fact that advertisements will be placed for six weeks prior to the closing date. I wish to record thanks to the members of the board, particularly Mr. Justice Smyth, for the work carried out. I thank the victims because, in coming forward and recounting the horrendous abuse they were subjected to as children, they have done us all a major service. It cannot have been easy for them and we should all be grateful for the fact they were willing to do it.

Child abuse in residential institutions and elsewhere in this country is a severe scar on our national consciousness. For a long time, we refused to talk about it as a society. I find it difficult to look at interviews with these people in documentaries. I remember seeing one a few years ago where a girl talked about being abused in a day school. She went home and told her parents but they did not believe her and brought her back to the same school the next morning.

I find that incredible but I hope it would not happen in the current environment where we talk about these issues. Society has moved on in that regard. That is the reality of the lives many children led in this country and it is to the shame of all of us that it was allowed happen.

The Residential Institutions Redress Board stems from the apology of the then Taoiseach, former Deputy Bertie Ahern, in May 1999 when he stated on behalf of the State that the Government wished to make a sincere and long overdue apology to the victims of child abuse. He stated that too many children had been denied the love, care and security to which they were entitled. He also stated that abuse had ruined their childhood and had been an ever-present part of their adult lives. He emphasised that the Government believed those people were gravely wronged by the State and stated that it was incumbent on the State to act now and do its best to compensate them. As other Members have said, no amount of financial compensation can in any way make up for the torture those victims endured as children but it was a small token of recognition from the State.

It is wrong that the institutions did not commit to a 50-50 split from the outset but the Government was right to proceed and set up the redress board. Many of the victims were elderly. At the time the Government was considering setting up the board there were concerns that some of them might pass away by the time their cases had been heard. The Government was right to set up the board while constantly seeking to get a fairer contribution from the institutions.

The Minister will be aware that in April 2010 the then Government published a detailed breakdown of the financial assets of the congregations and a little over a year ago the then Taoiseach called on them to pay their final half of the bill. I am very glad the Minister, Deputy Quinn, is pursuing that and I genuinely respect his perseverance in ensuring that they finally pay their fair share.

I was appalled to read in one of the newspapers today or yesterday that only two of the congregations had confirmed they will attend the meeting with the Minister on Friday. That is a disgrace. They appear to have no idea what ordinary members of society feel-----