Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 447: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the way the €2 million savings to be made from the operation of the Residential Institutions Redress Board will be made, as announced in the 7 April 2009 budget; the reason the board will make a lower level of awards; if this lower level of claims will arise from staff shortages to deal with claims in an efficient manner due to the cutbacks imposed by his Department; if he will explain what the administrative economies announced in the budget will entail; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16262/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Residential Institutions Redress Board is entirely independent in the performance of its functions and, once an award is made by it, the State is obliged to pay that award. The revised allocation recently announced will in no way impinge on the level of awards to former residents. The criteria employed by the Board to determine the level of awards in each individual case remain unchanged and will continue to apply until the last claim is processed. Therefore, persons having their claims processed now will not be affected by this in any way.

The revised allocation announced on 7th April is based on the up-to-date information on the number of outstanding claims and the estimated cost involved in processing them. In the case of the Redress Board for 2009, as with all publicly funded bodies, there have already been reductions announced by the Government in respect of payments to consultants (-8%) and travel and subsistence rates (-25%). While realising a reduction in running costs at the Board, this will not effect the level of individual awards or the rate at which they are processed.