Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform the amount of money spent on an inquiry (details supplied). [4669/11]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I can inform the Deputy that €943,858.25 was incurred by my Department in connection with the operation of the Independent Examination of the Stardust Victims Committee's case for a Reopened Inquiry into the Stardust Fire Disaster. In addition, my Department provided €424,300 to meet the legal, expert and other costs of participation by the Victims Committee.

As the Deputy will appreciate, my Department is not involved in the provision of health and social services in the community and as such has no information on assistance provided to the victims and their families from general programmes of this nature. However, in line with the discretionary recommendation made by Mr. Paul Coffey SC, my Department has put in place arrangements to respond to outstanding medical or counselling needs on the part of the victims and their families. A public notice was placed in newspapers inviting persons who wished to access such services through this channel to register their interest and information was also supplied to the Victims Committee for dissemination. Up until the end of 2010, €12,978.50 has been incurred in the provision of counselling services to the small number of people who have expressed an interest in availing of these arrangements.

In addition, the Deputy will also recall that my Department oversaw and funded the arrangements which led to the successful identification of 5 previously unidentified victims. A total of €177,820.53 was incurred in connection with the exhumation, forensic and funeral costs associated with the identification process.