Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 546: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if foster homes such as an orphanage (details supplied) in Dublin 7 can be brought within the ambit of the Residential Institutions Redress Board; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35313/05]

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. 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 with regard 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 adding three institutions to the Schedule.

With regard to the orphanage referred to in the Deputy's question, officials at my Department raised the matter with their counterparts at the Department of Health and Children. That Department has examined its files and has no record to indicate that a public body inspected or regulated the orphanage. The institution would not, therefore, qualify for inclusion in the Schedule to the Act.