Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 23: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will consider adding further institutions to the list included under the remit of the Residential Institutions Redress Board; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27674/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 provides a statutory scheme of financial redress for persons who, as children, were abused while in residential institutional care for which the State had a regulatory or supervisory responsibility.

The scheme applies in respect of institutions specified in the Schedule to the Act. Section 4 of the Act provides that the Minister for Education and Science may, by order, provide for the insertion in the Schedule of additional institutions in which children were placed and resident and in respect of which a public body had a regulatory or inspection function.

Since the enactment of the legislation, my Department has been contacted by individuals and-or solicitors in relation to various institutions not specified in the Schedule. Following consideration of the matter and consultation with relevant public bodies, I signed an order on 9 November 2004 which provided for the inclusion of 13 additional institutions in the Schedule. A further order was made on 1 July 2005 to include another three institutions.

The question of including additional institutions has now been fully considered by my Department in consultation with relevant Departments and it is not proposed to add any further institutions to the Schedule at this juncture.