Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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231. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide the list of survivor organisations and support groups whose consensus he acquired, to ratify and support the statutory fund which he presented to Dáil Éireann. [39222/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The legislation establishing the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund followed an extensive consultation process undertaken by my Department, which involved meetings with the religious congregations, groups representing survivors of residential institutional child abuse and a number of other interested parties. Press advertisements were placed in over 40 local and national newspapers and newspapers aimed at the Irish community in the United Kingdom inviting views, which could be forwarded by post, email or by a Freefone Service, which was operated by Barnardos, on behalf of my Department. A report on the consultation process is available on my Department's website.

I also met with groups representing survivors of residential institutional abuse on 22 July 2011, when we discussed the Government's approach to the proposed Statutory Fund. As the Deputy will recall from the debates on the passage of the legislation, there were a variety of views among survivors on the proposed Fund with some advocating a simple per capita distribution of the available resources. However, as I outlined during the passage of the Bill, the purpose of the Fund, is not, and never was, a form of additional compensation. That issue has been dealt with by the redress board. It is, as advocated in the original motion passed by all parties in this House, intended for the support of victims.