Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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47. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has read the 2015 annual report of the appeals officer appointed under the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012; the action being taken by his Department to direct Caranua to address the failings highlighted in that report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34880/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The 2015 Annual Report of the independent Appeals Officer appointed to consider appeals against decisions of Caranua (the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund) was presented by me to the Houses of the Oireachtas on 20 September last in fulfilment of the statutory requirement set out in section 21 of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012. The Report is a summary of the Appeals Officer’s work during the reporting period and includes a number of relevant case studies, statistical information, etc. The Report also addresses a number of operational and policy issues that arose in the course of the Appeals Officer’s work and it also provided an update on a number of issues that had been raised in his first Annual Report which covered 2014.  

As Caranua is an independent statutory body I, as Minister, have no role in relation to its day to day operations. Accordingly, it is a matter for Caranua itself to respond to and address any relevant issues of concern raised by the Appeals Officer.

I note that in his report the Appeals Officer has welcomed the fact that during 2016 Caranua agreed to expand the range of approved services it could support and that it amended its guidelines and application form, thus addressing some of the concerns he had raised in his 2014 and 2015 reports.