Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. For decades this country placed children behind bars, the vast majority for reasons of poverty and class. Father Flanagan of the boy's town schools in the United States visited the Irish industrial schools in 1946 and described them as a national disgrace. That led to a public debate in the Dáil and national media exposure. Their abolition was decades away and exposing the true horror of what went on within the walls was even further away.

As the Minister of State knows, Caranua was established to aid those who survived institutional abuse in Ireland. This month, its CEO stated that in the next few months it would finalise its operations while preparing to close on Thursday, 3 December of this year. The final funding support payments will be processed by 11 December, which is just two weeks away.

I have been contacted by representatives of some of the clients of Caranua. As I said, it is ceasing funding and winding down. However, it will not have completed its caseload by the time the fund is closed. I understand there are 86 outstanding cases, and I will briefly outline two such outstanding cases, the details of which have already been forwarded to the Department of Education.

In the first case, an applicant to Caranua applied for housing assistance in 2014. The application was supported by occupational therapists employed by Caranua. Three separate reports recommended that Caranua should pay for an extension to provide the applicant with a downstairs bathroom and bedroom. He cannot access the upstairs part of his home unassisted and is forced to urinate in his backyard and sleep in a chair. In February 2020, Caranua finally agreed to provide the person with funding for the extension. However, that funding has still not been provided.

A second person applied for help with improvements and repairs to her home. Caranua appointed its preferred supplier, but the work was carried out to a very poor standard. Other applications the person made were not dealt with at all. It was only after the last meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts, when this issue was raised with Caranua, that the case began to be resolved. Immediately after that meeting, Caranua contacted the person and apologised. That process is ongoing but is still a long way from being completed.

I have some questions for the Minister of State. What will happen to the outstanding applications following the closure of Caranua? While it said it believes all applications will be resolved by 11 December 2020, what contingencies have the Department put in place in the event that there are any outstanding applications? I believe that will very much be the case. On 4 November, it confirmed that there were 86 extending applications. There were also seven outstanding appeals.

Caranua intends to delete all the case files when it closes. What consultation was undertaken with survivors before this decision was taken? Once it closes, what supports will be available to survivors of historical institutional child abuse, many of whom have not received any financial assistance? Will the Government respond to the call for urgent measures to address the needs identified by the survivor consultation group which reported in July 2019?

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. He will be aware that the residential institutions statutory fund board, also known as Caranua, was established in 2013. Its specific purpose was to disburse the cash contributions of €110 million pledged by religious congregations following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, more commonly referred to as the Ryan report.

The contributions received from the congregations were held in an investment account managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and, including interest, the total funding available to Caranua was €101.38 million. Since its establishment, it has provided grants and funding supports to more than 6,000 survivors of institutional abuse, and for the most part those payments have related to health and housing. It has also provided support to survivors for education, training and exceptional needs.

The 2012 Act provides that all expenditure by Caranua must be met by the statutory fund, including grants and administrative expenditure, and does not provide for the Exchequer to supplement that fund in any way. Therefore, in anticipation of the exhaustion of the statutory fund, Caranua announced in 2018 that it would not accept new applications after 1 August 2018 unless there were exceptional circumstances. I understand it undertook an extensive publicity campaign to ensure that survivors were aware of this date, targeted in particular at survivors who had not previously benefited from the fund.

Caranua has since that time dealt mainly with applications on hand. To progress applications, it is dependent to a large extent on the receipt of paperwork such as quotes or invoices from survivors. Its application adviser team has worked to establish personalised timelines for applicants to ensure that their applications can be progressed, although the Covid-19 pandemic has, for obvious reasons, had an impact.

At this time, Caranua has only a small number of applications remaining to be finalised and has reduced its staffing component during the wind-down phase. It expects to have made any final payments by 11 December, as the Senator mentioned, and most of the remaining staff will leave the organisation on 31 December. For that reason, it is not expected that any applications will remain open when it is formally dissolved. Therefore, it is not expected that any transitional arrangements will be required. It expects to have utilised all of its available funding at the time of dissolution, so there are unlikely to be any significant cash assets remaining.Non-cash assets are unlikely to have a significant value. Its fixed assets had a book value of about €74,000 as of 31 December 2018.

Survivors have expressed concerns to the Minister, Deputy Foley, about how their needs into the future are going to be met, and the Senator mentioned some of those. I believe it is the intention of the Minister, Deputy Foley, to bring to Government proposals for a package of ongoing supports for survivors and for those supports to be in place when Caranua is dissolved. My understanding is that, primarily, most of the moneys have been spent on health and social services and educational services. Caranua is prohibited from spending money on rent and mortgages but it can spend money on white goods, and dental and ophthalmic costs have also been prevalent. I understand that, from 2 August 2018 until September 2020, there were some 342 late applications which came into that cohort under the exceptional circumstances bracket.

Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response. I am somewhat concerned. I have had prior dealings with Caranua through the education committee in the last Parliament. I am aware its dealings were far from satisfactory on a number of occasions. I would be concerned at the Minister of State's reference to "a small number" of cases because I certainly do not think 86 is a small number of cases, and that was the position just over two weeks ago when the statement from Caranua confirmed it was 86 cases. I would be almost certain there will be cases outstanding. I would like a reassurance from the Minister of State that transitional arrangements will be in place to ensure that, in any outstanding cases, there will be funding and solutions for those people. As I have had to describe, unfortunately, right now, one man is having to urinate in his backyard and to sleep in a chair. That is not untypical of the type of cases we are talking about. Let me remind the Minister of State that these are people who have been victimised several times over by the State already. We cannot fail them again.

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I completely agree with the Senator's sentiment in that regard. Obviously, due to the particular impact of residential abuse on survivors, the Department is extremely mindful of that. Caranua was set up and designed to pay out, not that any money can ever compensate for what people have suffered and endured in this type of abuse or, indeed, any abuse. Having said that, moneys are available and late applications will be possible and have been possible since 1 August 2018. The Department told me that 342 late applications have come in since August 2018 and if there are transitional arrangements to be made, they will be made. My understanding is they will not be required at this moment in time. Obviously, it is always open to existing or new applicants to look for funding.