Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I welcome the Minister to the House. Like Senator Paul Bradford, I was not in a position to attend yesterday's comprehensive Second Stage debate, in which the Minister and others spoke movingly about the plight of those persons whose difficulties the Bill seeks to address. To echo Senator Marie Moloney, I appreciate the sentiment behind these amendments while also recognising that different abuse survivors have different needs. I have had the privilege of representing some of those survivors before the Residential Institutions Redress Board in the past. As a result, I have some small appreciation of the enormous level of harm and damage caused to so many people who were sent to these institutions as children. An immense wrong was done to them by the State, for which the Minister and others have issued an apology. The Murphy and Ryan reports have given us all an indication of the extent of the abuse suffered.

The key imperative, as Senator Paul Bradford pointed out, is to get the Bill through the Oireachtas and thus ensure that another component in the series of measures the State is offering survivors by way of redress is put in place. As colleagues pointed out, the Minister has indicated in both Houses that the issue of who is eligible to apply for assistance can be reviewed following the establishment of the statutory fund, particularly in the event that applications do not result in significant expenditure. That assurance from the Minister should meet the concerns of the Senators who brought forward these amendments. We all appreciate that there are people who might have been eligible but were not previously in a position to apply. The Minister's commitment to review the situation will go some way towards meeting their needs. As I said, the Bill is just one of a series of measures - long overdue measures - the State has put in place. They are sorely needed in order to offer some type of redress for the immense hurt and abuse suffered by so many people.