These are the Board Meeting minutes from 10 October 2013

Present

Sylda Langford, Chair

Austin Currie

Tom Daly

Bernadette Fahy

Katherine Finn

David Lane

Phyllis Morgan

In attendance

Mary Higgins

Julie Anne Dunne

Fiona Coyne

1. Apologies

Apologies were received from Damian Casey.  The Chair reported that Paddy had tendered his resignation to the Minister, due to ill health.  The Minister has offered to hold the position open in the even that it may be possible for Paddy to be considered as the replacement when his health improves.  Members of the Board received this news with deep regret and asked that a letter be sent to him noting this regret, the very valuable contribution he had made to the Board and wishing him a speedy recovery.

2. Minutes of the meeting held on 12th September

The minutes of the meeting were read and approved and formal adoption was proposed by Bernadette Fahy and seconded by Phyllis Morgan.

It was agreed that in future, the draft minutes would be circulated within a week of the meeting and Board members would then have an opportunity within a week to make suggestions for amendments which would be taken into account in the discussion of the minutes at the meeting when the minutes would be approved.

3. Matters Arising not on the Agenda or CEO work report:

(a) Correspondence

Correspondence regarding Section 24 of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, 2013 was brought to the attention of the Board, together with a letter from the Minister regarding recent parliamentary questions.  The issues raised were considered by the Board and replies agreed.  Arising from this, it was agreed that it was not necessary for all correspondence to be brought to the attention of the Board and it should be a matter for the CEO and Chairperson to decide together on what should be brought to the Board.

(b) Article for Law Gazette

As agreed at the last meeting, a short article was prepared for publication in the Law Gazette, as a means of alerting solicitors to our existence and purpose.

4. Introduction to new Staff member

Fiona Coyne who has taken up the position of Director of Services was warmly welcomed to the meeting and she gave a short explanation of her previous work and background, by way of introduction.  The Chairperson thanked Bernadette for her assistance to the CEO in the selection process for this post.

5. CEO Work Report

The CEO presented a work report for the period 2nd September – 2nd October.  Issues, discussion and decisions arising were:

• The launch of the new website with new identify and logo was welcomed
• The decision of the City and County Managers Association to appoint nine senior officers to liaise with us was welcomed.  It was agreed that a key part of our formal agreement with the local authorities should include a clause to ensure that there would be no gap in continuity if the appointed officers were on leave or otherwise absent from their positions
•  In the context of consideration of the capacity building for public and other service providers to help them to recognise and respond to the needs of survivors it was noted that this should always include a survivor perspective provided by a survivor and that the Board members as desired could participate in such sessions or similar sessions could be arranged for them specifically.
• The proposal to tender for the work on communication, engagement and outreach to ensure that we are able to make contact with as many of the people eligible to apply to us as possible was agreed.  There was discussion on the use of posters in this context and it was also agreed that the image used on the poster promoting the Redress Board process should be considered in this context.  Phyllis is to supply the image.

6. Draft Performance Management Agreement with DES

In keeping with Government policy in this area, a standard draft agreement had been prepared by the Department of Education and Skills, in conjunction with the Chairperson and CEO.  The draft document was read and agreed, subject to an amendment to the date by which an evaluation framework would be agreed – from March to June 2014.

 7. Presentation on Range of Services, application process and criteria

The presentation prepared by the CEO was presented and additional time was allocated at the meeting to consider it.  The presentation set out the range of services that could be provided, the processes for making an application and the criteria against which applications would be assessed.  There was a thorough discussion on the content of the presentation.

It was agreed that the next meeting should be a full day meeting and that the various elements of the scheme should be brought together, considered and finalised at that meeting, with additional time allocated at the December meeting if necessary to finalise the terms of the scheme and be ready to invite applications in January.

8. Presentation on new system

The intended presentation on the new database/case management system was deferred until the next meeting as there was no time at this one.

9. Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on THURSDAY 14th November 2013.  The meeting will run from 10:30am to 5:00pm