Below are questions asked in the Oireachtas, relating to Caranua and other areas relevant to survivors

Residential Institutions Redress Scheme Data

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the total cost of residential institutions redress, reported as costing the State €1.518 billion, includes payments to former residents of other institutions other than those run by the 18 religious congregations and orders that have contributed, or have promised to contribute, funds to the tune of €320.8 million; and if not, the total figure.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the proportion of the total cost of residential institutions redress which is accounted for by institutions or organisations that are not part of the 18 religious congregations and orders.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the efforts he has made in relation to institutions or organisations, separate from the 18 religious orders or congregations, to recoup part of the cost of residential institutions redress for abuse suffered by their former residents.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the institutions and organisations that appear to have not contributed funds to residential institutions redress; and the amount paid out in compensation payments to former residents of those institutions and organisations.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of redress for each institution for which payments were made by the Residential Institutions Redress Board to former residents.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of residential institutions redress, per applicant, per institution.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of applicants for residential institutions redress per institution, successful and otherwise.

Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills the religious denomination, if applicable, of institutions whose former residents were offered compensation by the Residential Institutions Redress Board.

Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Richard Bruton): I propose to take Questions Nos. 75 to 82, inclusive, together. The Redress Board was set up under the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002 to make fair and reasonable awards to persons who, as children, were abused while resident in industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions subject to state regulation or inspection.

The estimated overall cost of awards made by the Residential Institutions Redress Board and associated applicant costs is in the order of € 1.25 billion. The Redress Board, which has made awards to nearly 15,600 applicants, operates independently and the application process is confidential in accordance with the terms of the 2002 Act.

The 2002 Act provides that applications coming before the Redress Board are treated in a confidential manner. This confidentiality is required in order to protect the identity of applicants and because the Redress Board, when considering an application, is not permitted to address any issue of fault or negligence arising out of the evidence given in an application and is not empowered to make a finding of fact relating to fault or negligence in relation to evidence submitted with an application.

The Act prohibits the publication of any information regarding an application made under the Act that refers to any other person, relevant person or institution by name or which could reasonably lead to such identification.

Therefore my Department does not have the application details sought by the Deputy.

The 2002 Indemnity Agreement between the Government and religious congregations provided for a collective contribution of €128 million from the 18 participating congregations in cash, counselling services and property.

The cash contributions of €54.42m under the Agreement have been received while information has been provided to my Department that confirms that counselling services in excess of the €10m provided for in the agreement have been funded directly by the contributing congregations.

Work to complete the outstanding property transfers is actively progressing and I should point out that in most of the remaining cases the transfer process is at a very advanced stage. It is worth noting also that most of the properties are already in use by the intended recipients.