These are the Board Meeting minutes from 27 March 2014

We are happy to publish the minutes of our Board meetings so that Board activities and decisions are accountable. There is always a delay between the meeting held and the publication of the minutes.  This is because the minutes must be approved before they can be published.  Minutes are approved at the meeting after the meeting they are a record off.  For example, if a Board meeting is held in March and the next meeting is held in April, the minutes of the March meeting will not be on the website until after the April meeting.

Present

David O’Callaghan, Chair

Tom Daly

Austin Currie

Bernadette Fahy

David Lane

Phyllis Morgan

Frances Harrington

Katherine Finn

Damian Casey

In attendance

Mary Higgins

Conor Morrison

1. Introduction to the new Chair

The new Chair, David O’Callaghan, introduced himself to the Board.  He emphasised his belief that the Board should be committed to maintaining high standards of corporate governance and focusing on providing an efficient and effective service to survivors of institutional abuse.

2. Apologies

There were no apologies.

3. Minutes of the meeting Held on 20th February

The minutes of the meeting of 20th February 2014 were read and approved.  Proposed by Tom Daly and seconded by Austin Currie.

4. Matters Arising from the minutes not on agenda

(b) Position on role of survivor groups in application process

• The Board discussed the proposed outreach and information programme for survivors groups, mainstream services and information clinics for survivors from the CEO, and agreed that it should be put into operation.

(c) Plan for compliance wtih FOI, Ombudsman and Data Protection

• Caranua is in compliance with the relevant legislatation in having written policies in place and following them in practice, they are not readily publicly available and this will be completed by the end of April.

5. CEO Work Report

The CEO presented the work report for the period 24th February to 21st March.  Key issues discussed and arising were:

• 2134 applications had been received by the 20th of March and 91% of these have been verified as eligible and 60% asked for evidence of identity.  Only 10 have been deemed ineligible.  The majority (77%) continue to be from Ireland with wiith one in five from the UK
• The post of Head of Communications and Engagement has now been filled.  Although a start date has yet to be finalised, it is expected to be early May
• The Board requested that leflets and posters be circulated to representatives  of non-Catholic religious denominations
• The Board agreed that additional work to the case management system should be put to tender
• The proposal to establish a panel of qualified practitioners to address teh backlog of applications was defered to the next meeting
• A proposal for the employment of survivors in case work was deferred to the next meeting
• The Board asked the executive to seek some assurance that the nominated location for the new premises would not be offered to another tenant while we tender for the fit-out
• The appointment of an independent appeals officer was welcomed by the Board and a meeting is to be arranged between him and the Chair and CEO
• On the question of additional contributions to the investment account, the Board requested that the executive write to the DES regarding the likely rate at which outstanding contributions will be received and to suggest that as land prices in Dublin are rising that any related to property should be placed on the market.

6. Report of the Audit and Risk sub committee

The sub committee presented the final draft of the 2013 unaudited accounts for Caranua.  These must be submitted to the C&AG on Monday 31st March.  The accounts were considered by the Board and following some discussion and clarification were adopted.  This was proposed by David Lane and seconded by Bernadette Fahy.

7. Correspondence

Correspondence was noted and the Board suggested that it would be useful to get a  “flavour” of the correspondence receieved in relation to the scheme at the next meeting.

8. Contracts

There were no contracts in respect of this period.

9. Annual Report 2013

The Annual Report which had been circulated in advance of the meeting was considered and suggestions made for additional informationto be provided on governance.  It was agreed that additional time should be given to the document and it was tabled for consideration at the next meeting.

10. Crtieria second edition

The second edition criteria which had been discussed at the last meeting were considered again.  There was dissatisifaction with the changes made to the ‘plain English’ version among some members.  It was agreed that the second edition, together with suggested changes, and the accommodation of those changes would be considered again by the Board at its next meeting.

11. A.O.B.

As requested at the last meeting, the financial model which had been considered by the Board in November and formally adopted in December was circulated in a more user friendly format.  It was agreed that this was a very important document in terms of providing a reference point for expenditure on the services.  It will be studied in greater detail by the Audit and Risk committee who will revert to Board with any additional observations at its next meeting.

12. Death of Christine Buckley

The Board noted with sadness the death of Christine Buckley who had played such a pivotal role in highlighting the issue of institutional abuse and recorded its expression of sympathy with her family and her colleagues in the Ashling Centre.

13. Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Board will be held on 24th April 2014at 10.30 a.m. in the Department of Education and Skills.