Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I will start by also acknowledging Sheila and thanking her for being here. In introducing the Supports for Survivors of Residential Institutional Abuse Bill 2024 before this House, I am very conscious of the enormous trauma that has been endured by survivors of all abuse. Nothing we can do now and nothing I can say here will ever undo the hurt that has been caused.

It has been nearly 25 years since the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on 11 May 1999 apologised on behalf of the State to the victims of childhood abuse. That apology arose from the important recognition of the extent and effect of the childhood abuse that had taken place in institutions that were supervised and regulated by the State. How a society treats children tells us much about that society. We all agree that every child deserves the utmost in care, attention and love. For too many children, this obligation was not honoured. The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse shone a very strong light into dark places of Irish history. As I said, nothing can ever be said or done to unravel the pain and suffering from those who were abused. I acknowledge that again today.

The final report of the commission, known as the Ryan report, was published in 2009. It revealed that shocking levels of physical and emotional abuse were endemic in the institutions concerned, while sexual abuse also occurred in many institutions, particularly those for boys. In parallel with the work of the commission, the Residential Institutions Redress Board was established in 2002 to make fair and reasonable awards of redress to those who as children were abused while resident in industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions subject to State regulation or inspection. The redress board accepted applications for almost nine years. Ultimately, about 15,600 survivors received awards of redress. In 2006, the Education Finance Board was established on a statutory basis to provide grants to survivors and their relatives to assist them in engaging in education. This was enabled by a specific fund provided by the relevant religious congregations under the 2002 indemnity agreement. The board was formally dissolved in 2013. Similarly, funding of more than €110 million was provided by the congregations following the publication of the Ryan report in 2009. This was assigned to the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, or Caranua, which was established in 2013 to provide funding and supports to survivors in respect of approved services such as health, education or housing.

Overall, Caranua provided funding supports to more than 6,000 eligible survivors, with each applicant receiving variations of different supports. To date, these initiatives have involved a significant amount of funding - albeit we are not here to talk about funding – in the amount of €1.5 billion, including direct redress payments to other supports or survivors, as well as other payments that have happened over the years through the different structures put in place.

The national counselling service was established in 2000 as a free nationwide service providing counselling and psychotherapy service to survivors of abuse in residential institutions. In addition, my Department has since funded the origins tracing service for individuals who spent all or part of their childhoods in Irish industrial schools and who are interested in tracing information about their parents, siblings or other relatives. The service, which is operated by Barnardos, is available free of charge to survivors living in Ireland but also supports those living abroad.

The legislation before the House has two main purposes. It is intended to enable the delivery of ongoing health and education supports to survivors of abuse in residential institutions such as industrial schools and reformatories and to provide for the dissolution of Caranua. The Bill was published in April 2024 and completed its passage through the Dáil on 28 May 2025. This marks a new phase of the State providing ongoing supports to survivors and builds on the response to this issue to date. The development of the new package of supports was informed by consideration of the reports of a survivor-led consultative forum, along with other relevant reports and submissions. My predecessor as Minister, Deputy Norma Foley, met with the forum on several occasions. I acknowledge the commitment and engagement of its members.

Subject to the enactment of the Bill, it is my intention that the health supports payment for former residents of institutions living outside the State, as well as the education supports, will be available by 1 August. The roll-out of the health supports for those who are resident in Ireland will be from the third quarter of this year following consultation with the Minister for Health and the HSE. It is imperative that these measures are implemented and supported as soon as possible.

I will now outline the key parts of the Bill, as passed by the Dáil. Part 1 provides for a number of preliminary matters, including commencement, the payment of expenses arising from the administration of the Bill and definitions. A key definition is that of "former resident" as it relates to those who will be eligible for the supports provided under the legislation. This is defined by reference to the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 that established Caranua and essentially provided that a former resident is a person who received an award of redress from the Residential Institutions Redress Board or a similar board or a settlement.

Part 2 provides for the delivery of health and education supports to survivors. Section 4 provides for the delivery of a package of health supports and services to former residents that will allow survivors access to GP services, drugs and medicines, home nursing and home helps, dental, ophthalmic and aural services, counselling, chiropody and physiotherapy. This is the same package of supports as that being provided to survivors of the Magdalen laundries under the Magdalen laundry scheme and to former residents of mother and baby homes and county home institutions under the mother and baby homes institutions payment scheme. This entitlement will be for life and will not be subject to means testing or review.

Section 4 also provides a legal basis for the transfer and processing of any relevant data by the Department and the HSE to enable the delivery of these supports. It requires that such processing be subject to suitable and specific measures to safeguard the rights of data subjects.In recognition of the fact that approximately a third of survivors of abuse in residential institutions live outside of the State, section 5 provides for the making of a once-off health support payment of €3,000 to survivors who are resident abroad. This is in lieu of the enhanced medical card to support their health needs. This is the same approach as was taken in the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023.

Section 6 provides for the payment, on application by a survivor and subject to criteria determined under the Bill, of a grant to assist them to engage in education. Subject to the passage of the Bill, my Department will establish a new scheme involving the payment of cash grants ranging from €500 to €2,000 to survivors who are engaging, or who wish to continue to engage, in further and higher education. The scheme will also ensure survivors are not required to pay the student contribution charge where this would otherwise apply. These grants will be additional to the wide range of enhanced supports in place for those seeking to engage in further and higher education, including the free fees initiative, the SUSI student grant scheme, the back to education allowance, and initiatives such as Springboard.

Part 3 contains a number of standard provisions relating to the dissolution of Caranua. As I have already outlined, Caranua’s specific purpose was to disburse funding supports to survivors in areas such as health, housing and education from a ring-fenced fund of €110 million plus interest of €1.38 million, which was provided by the relevant congregations following the publication of the Ryan report. As the funding available to it was finite in nature and could not, under the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, 2012, be supplemented by Exchequer funding, Caranua began winding down its operations in 2018 and effectively closed in March 2021. Part 3 provides for the appointment by the Minister of a dissolution day upon which Caranua will be dissolved, for the transfer of relevant functions to the Minister, for the transfer of liability for loss, property rights and liabilities, for the preparation by the Minister of Caranua’s final accounts and final annual report, and the closure of the investment account which holds what remains of the statutory fund.

I note in particular that section 14 provides for the transfer of Caranua’s records to the Minister and for the processing of that data for certain specific purposes. It is important to note that the records held by Caranua do not include detailed testimony or accounts of survivors' experience of abuse in residential institutions - the type held by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse or the Residential Institutions Redress Board. The records relate solely to Caranua’s role of disbursing funding to survivors, including day-to-day administrative records and records relating to applications made by survivors. These data and records will continue to be subject to both GDPR and freedom of information legislation, and survivors will continue to be entitled to exercise their GDPR and FOI rights, including seeking a copy of their own data. My Department has engaged closely with both the Office of the Attorney General and the Data Protection Commissioner on revisions relating to the transfer and processing of data under the Act. Appropriate and suitable safeguards will be put in place, in consultation with the Data Protection Commission where necessary, to ensure all such data is held confidentially and in compliance with all data protection requirements.

Section 17 provides for the utilisation of any funds transferred to the Minister upon Caranua’s dissolution and provides that these funds will be used only for the purpose of benefiting former residents. However, it should be noted that very limited funding remains available to Caranua at this time.

Part 4 contains a number of miscellaneous provisions. Section 18 provides for the transfer of certain data to the Minister by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the data concerned being the name, address and date of birth of each individual who received an award of redress from the board, and for processing of that data where necessary and proportionate to confirm the eligibility of a person for the ongoing supports provided under the Bill.

Section 19 provides for the making of relevant regulations by the Minister, while section 20 provides for the amendment of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 to ensure redress payments made by the Residential Institutions Redress Board are no longer taken into account when making financial assessments under the fair deal scheme.

Section 21 provides for the amendment of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme Act 2023 to take account of the supports to be provided under this Bill. The 2023 Act provides that a person who has benefited from the Magdalen laundry scheme will not be eligible for a health support payment under the Act. The proposed amendment will ensure this will apply to a former resident who receives a health support payment under section 5.

As well as the health and educational supports provided for under the Bill, Government also approved the provision of advocacy supports specifically for survivors. Although these do not require a legislative basis and are not reflected in the Bill, they represents a critical element in the overall package of supports. Survivors highlighted the difficulties many experience in engaging with and accessing existing mainstream public services and identified a requirement for signposting and advocacy for access to such survivors. That is why this has been put in place. My Department has therefore entered into a grant funding arrangement with Sage Advocacy, an independent advocacy organisation, which we are all aware of, with a strong track record in providing advocacy supports to older people, vulnerable adults and healthcare patients, to develop information support advocacy services to assist individual survivors to engage with and access relevant services and support. Sage Advocacy has already rolled this service out, which has involved recruiting regional advocates who are based around the country. They engage with survivors to support them in their dealings with service providers in areas of health, social protection and housing. Sage continues to implement a communications and outreach plan to try to promote survivors' awareness of the availability of this service.

Given the importance of delivering this suite of measures to survivors, especially the health and education supports outlined in the Bill, I hope to enact the Bill as quickly as possible. I commend the Bill to the House. I acknowledge every single survivor, those who we were referencing specifically here today and all survivors of childhood abuse. We can never change what happened but we have to acknowledge it to move forward and do everything we possibly can to support in every way possible those who are impacted. That is what we are trying to do here. It will never go far enough - I appreciate that - but this is a step in the right direction. We need to make some small acknowledgement of the trauma inflicted on so many people.