Vol. 563 No. 1
342 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Education and Science the evaluation which was carried out on the likely costs associated with court cases that might be taken by persons alleging abuse in residential institutions who would choose to seek redress through the courts rather than through the Residential Institutions Redress Board; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7237/03]
In May 1999 the Government publicly recognised that abuse had occurred in residential institutions which were under the State's supervision. A significant number of former residents of reformatory and industrial schools who alleged abuse had initiated court proceedings against the State following that apology. The Government decided to set the Residential Institutions Redress Board to provide an alternative mechanism for victims of abuse and allow victims a less adversarial alternative to having to process their claims for compensation through the courts. The decision to set up the scheme was based in equity and justice for the victims. Therefore, the potential legal costs if all cases were to proceed to the courts were not a factor in the Government's decision and no evaluation as to those potential legal costs was undertaken. In any event, it would have been difficult to carry out such an evaluation with any degree of accuracy, as every case is different.
As the Deputy is aware, the Compensation Advisory Committee recommended a scale of awards having examined on the level of awards made for personal injury in the Irish courts. These recommendations have been made into regulations for use by the redress board. It would be reasonable to expect therefore that the overall cost of awards in legal cases would not exceed the overall cost of awards by the redress board. However, as the redress board will make awards based on medical evidence, and will be speedier and less adversarial than the courts, I expect that the level of legal costs associated with cases dealt with by the redress board should be lower than if all cases were to proceed through the courts.
