Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will inform Dáil Éireann of the highest award paid by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the lowest award and the average amount awarded; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5757/06]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on the assessment of the Comptroller and Auditor General that the final cost of the operation of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 is likely to be in the region of €1.3 billion; the number of awards made to date in 2006 and the amount paid out in settlements; the average amount of such payments; the number of outstanding cases; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5735/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 157 together.

The highest award made to date by the Residential Institutions Redress Board is €300,000 and the lowest award is €0.00. The average award currently amounts to €75,000. According to figures supplied by the board to my Department, the board has finalised 4,955 cases to date. Awards have been made in 4,799 of these cases, of which 322 awards have been made in 2006. The total amount paid out in awards to date is €359.2 million. The board has received a total of approximately 14,800 applications and, at present, it has approximately 9,845 cases remaining to be processed.

At a recent hearing of the Committee of Public Accounts, the Comptroller and Auditor General was asked about estimates for the cost of the redress scheme. In the light of the total number of applications which the board had received by the closing date of 15 December 2005 and allowing for legal and administration costs, he suggested a minimum cost of €1 billion and, based on an average award of €76,000 up to the end of 2005, a maximum cost of the order of €1.35 billion.

The Comptroller and Auditor General also referred to the possibility of the average award decreasing as more applicants are processed and emphasised that any estimates of the ultimate liability arising from the redress scheme are based on assumptions which are impossible to validate and should therefore be treated in a cautionary way.

I would add that the scheme is without precedent and the difficulty in estimating the total cost of the scheme prior to the closing date for applications is illustrated by the fact that over 6,000 new applications were received by the board in the six week period from 1 November to 15 December 2005. While the total number of applicants is now known, any estimate of the final cost of the scheme at this point will still be tentative as the board has over 9,800 cases to process and the level of award provided in these remaining cases may vary substantially.

Also, in making any assessment of cost, one must consider that if the scheme had not been introduced, the State, in all likelihood, would have been engaged in civil court actions which would have been protracted and traumatic for the victims and would have resulted in the State incurring extensive legal and settlement costs. The Government, in establishing the scheme, considered that it was the just and humane thing to do as the State was responsible for children that were placed in institutions by the courts and other public bodies.