Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of persons who have made compensation applications to the Residential Institutions Redress Board at the latest date for which figures are available; the way in which the number of applications compares with the original estimate made by her Department; the latest estimate of the number of likely applications; the total amount paid out in awards to date; the estimated likely total liability of the State; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13010/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Residential Institutions Redress Board is an independent body established under statute in December 2002 to provide financial redress to persons who, as children, were abused while resident in industrial schools, reformatories or other institutions that were subject to State regulation or inspection. To date, the board has received 5,909 applications and has made awards in just over 3,000 of these cases at a total cost of approximately €229 million.

The board has prepared its second annual report which covers the period 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2004. This report was laid before each of the Houses of the Oireachtas on 13 April 2005 and will shortly be available on the board's website at www.rirb.ie. In its 2004 report, the board states that, based on the pattern of receipt of applications to date, it anticipates receiving between 7,500 and 8,000 applications by the final date for receipt of applications on 15 December 2005, although it emphasises that this is a tentative estimate.

The redress scheme has now been in operation for almost two and a half years and the board will continue to accept applications until December 2005. At that stage, it will be possible to determine the total number of applications under the scheme but, as it will take the board some considerable time to deal with all applications, the final cost of the scheme may not be known until some time in 2007. Based on the total number of applications the redress board expects to receive up to the end of this year, and allowing for legal and administration costs, the estimated total cost of the scheme will be somewhere in the region of €680 million and €730 million.

The Department's estimate prior to the establishment of the redress board was that the amount of compensation would be €508 million, not including legal and administration costs. Including legal and administration costs the cost of awards under this estimate would be €610 million. The final cost of the redress scheme must be viewed in the context of the Government's concern to provide reasonable compensation towards the hurt and suffering experienced by victims of abuse and the very substantial costs that would have been incurred in any event if no such scheme had been established and if cases had been processed in the normal manner through the courts.