Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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113. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if persons are being employed under JobBridge or any other labour activation scheme in relation to operating Caranua; and his views on whether it is appropriate that unqualified persons would work in such a sensitive area with persons who are extremely vulnerable as a result of the abuse they suffered. [7345/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Caranua is the service name used by the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund, which is an independent statutory body under the aegis of my Department. From enquiries made by my officials to Caranua I understand that it has not provided any internships under the JobBridge initiative or any other labour activation scheme. I agree that care should be taken to ensure that Caranua employees are in a position to deal effectively and sensitively with those survivors who are vulnerable as a result of the abuse they suffered as children.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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114. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the Linden Home in Blackrock was excluded from the residential institutions redress scheme; and the steps that are open to former residents to obtain redress. [7365/14]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002 included 123 specified institutions and section 4 of the Act enabled the Minister for Education and Science to provide for the insertion into the Schedule of

"any industrial school, reformatory school, orphanage, children's home, special school which was established for the purpose of providing education services to children with a physical or intellectual disability or a hospital providing medical or psychiatric services to people with a physical or mental disability or mental illness in which children were placed and resident and in respect of which a public body had a regulatory or inspection function."

Two Orders were made specifying 16 additional institutions, in November 2004 and July 2005, bringing the total number of scheduled institutions to 139. Since then, no further institutions have been added to the Schedule. Following the publication of the Ryan Report in May 2009, there were a range of demands for the redress scheme to be extended, including demands to include specific institutions and categories of institutions. However, the Government of the time decided against the inclusion of any further institutions within the scheme. The decision not to extend the scheme has meant the exclusion of a range of institutions which could have been considered for inclusion.

The closing date for receipt of applications by the Redress Board was 15th December, 2005. The Board could however accept late applications in exceptional circumstances, up until September 2011. The Board is currently finalising the remaining applications it received. I understand that requests to include Linden Convalescent Home in the Schedule were considered by my Department and refused on the basis that the Home did not come within the terms of section 4.