Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 181: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will initiate a scheme of redress for people who suffered abuse while in foster care; if her Department has records of such cases; if representations have been received from people who suffered such abuse; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34749/06]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy may be aware in 2002, the then Minister for Education and Science introduced the Residential Institutions Redress Act. This legislation was enacted to provide a mechanism for former residents of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages, children's homes and in certain situations special schools and hospitals to obtain redress for injuries they suffered while so resident.

The rationale behind the setting up of the Redress Board was that children in the residential institutions were separated from their parents and, therefore, did not have the benefit of the care and protection which a child in the care of a family usually enjoys. The institutions concerned controlled all aspects of the children's lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no reasonable capacity for access to or involvement by their parents. Therefore, the children in the institutions relied to a significant degree on the public bodies that had a statutory duty to protect them.

During the passage of the legislation through both Houses the issue of including children who were in foster care was discussed and it was decided not to extend the legislation, as children in foster care were not in a residential institution. It is not the intention currently to establish a redress board dealing with foster care. However, I wish to assure you that I am committed to ensuring that children placed in foster care receive the highest standard of care.

I am aware of correspondence from 3 individuals in recent times seeking the establishment of such a redress board and I have responded to these individuals in this regard. It is, of course, open to any individual to pursue their own redress through the courts system should they wish.