Seanad Éireann debate -
Thursday, 26 Nov 2020

Vol. 272 No. 11

Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters

Water and Sewerage Schemes

Senator Martin Conway

The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, is welcome to the House to deal with this important matter of sewerage schemes in critical villages in County Clare. There are four in particular, namely, Broadford, Cooraclare, Doolin and Carrigaholt. As the Minister of State knows from his many visits to County Clare, it is a big tourism county, which has hundreds of thousands of people coming to visit during peak times of the tourist season.

Doolin has been waiting for decades for an upgraded sewerage system. Hundreds of thousands of people use Doolin to connect to the Aran Islands every year. Many people in Doolin wish to provide infrastructure for the tourism sector. There are people who wish to build accommodation, guest houses, small hotels, boutique hotels and bed and breakfasts. People in the area have been waiting to have the streetscape in Doolin upgraded, with proper public lighting, proper footpaths, improved roadways and so on. The problem is all of this development is deemed to be premature because the existing sewerage system cannot cope with the level of development in place at the moment, not to talk about increased capacity. Doolin has provided the taxpayer and the tourism industry in this country with a unique product and the State has not stepped up to the plate in providing the vital sewerage schemes. Similarly, Carrigaholt is another part of County Clare that has benefited the area, the county and the country with its tourism offering. It also is an area in which many people wish to invest. There would be significant capital investment in the tourism area, were the sewerage scheme up to standard. However, it is not and investment is needed. Cooraclare is just off the Wild Atlantic Way. The village has waited for decades and been promised by umpteen Governments that it will have its upgraded sewerage system in place. It still has not happened. Regarding Broadford in east Clare, there are a number of investors waiting and willing to invest in the village, to improve it, invest in its infrastructure, provide accommodation and small industry and so on. Again, it is all deemed to be premature because the sewerage system that is there is not fit for purpose.

I understand these are considered small schemes in the overall context. The problem is that there is no home to accommodate them. I will suggest what the Minister of State and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, should do. The Oireachtas Members in Clare had a constructive meeting with the Minister in the Custom House yesterday evening. We explained that a pot of money has to be made available in the Department for small schemes and the local authorities need to prioritise a scheme each, perhaps, because this is not just prevalent in County Clare. I am sure it is an issue in other counties as well. A pot of €30 million or €40 million should be made available by the Department over a five-year period that the local authorities could apply to in order to deal with the legacy sewerage schemes that have to be upgraded. They are not big enough for Irish Water and they are too big to be done at a very localised budgeting level. Therefore, they are in between.

I suggest County Clare and the four schemes I have proposed should be a pilot to see how such a scheme would work nationally. I encourage the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to roll this out at national level then because I have no doubt the pilot would be successful.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Peter Burke)

I thank Senator Conway for raising this issue and providing me with the opportunity to address the matter. Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has had statutory responsibility for all aspects of public water services planning, delivery and operation at a national, regional and local level. As part of budget 2021, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage secured funding of over €1.4 billion to support water services. This includes €1.3 billion in respect of domestic water services provisioned by Irish Water.

The overall investment will deliver significant improvement in our public water and wastewater services, support improved water supplies across Ireland, including rural Ireland, and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in our rivers, lakes and marine areas. The programme for Government commits to supporting the take-up of Irish Water's small towns and villages growth programme, which is intended to provide water and wastewater growth capacity in smaller settlements, which would not otherwise be provided for in the capital investment programme.

It should be noted that Irish Water is subject to independent economic regulation by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which determines the revenue required by Irish Water to meet its operating and capital costs and ensure it operates in an efficient manner in delivering its services to customers. Therefore, Irish Water brought forward proposals for a small towns and villages growth programme, as part of the capital investment programme for 2020 to 2024, to the CRU for consideration. The programme is intended to support a number of the national policy objectives and national strategic outcomes under the national planning framework. I understand from Irish Water that an allocation of €97.5 million for this programme was approved by the CRU. I also understand that projects that are now commencing design and investment under the programme will deliver change in the coming years.

Irish Water is working with local authorities across the country in ensuring that investment supports the growth of identified settlements where these are prioritised in line with local authority development plans. Irish Water has informed me that Clare County Council has applied for funding under the small towns and villages growth programme in relation to Doonbeg. This application is under review. In addition to the major investment delivered by Irish Water, my Department also funds rural water investment under the multi-annual rural water programme. This programme supports investment in community-based group schemes, as well as providing supports for improvement of wells and septic tanks.

The current investment programme is based on recommendations from the working group established in April 2018 to conduct a review of rural water services. The working group has a two-strand approach of consideration. Strand one considered the composition and distribution of funding under the rural water programme while strand two is considering the long-term future resourcing of rural Ireland and water supply generally.

The issue of wastewater infrastructure in villages not serviced by Irish Water is a matter for the working group, which it will consider as part of its work. The Department expects a further report from this group in 2021. I again wish to acknowledge Senator Conway and his interest in rural Ireland and, in particular, rural infrastructure in County Clare. I was not aware of the meeting yesterday with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, but I will raise it. Obviously, it is important that our towns and villages are given the opportunity to grow. A key component of that is the infrastructure Senator Conway rightly points out is needed in a rural area. I will follow up on that meeting and we will try our best to prioritise it in the new year.

Senator Martin Conway

I sincerely thank the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, for what I consider a positive update. A slice of that funding for Irish Water needs to be pulled back into the Department. A fund should be created in the Department, with each local authority being given the option of applying for one scheme per year under a new programme which would deal with these legacy wastewater and sewage systems.

To be quite frank, I consider Doolin in County Clare to be a national tourist destination. It is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. Those visitors and, more importantly, the people living and working in the village of Doolin deserve an upgraded sewerage system.

Cooraclare is a village just off the Wild Atlantic Way. Thousands of people travel through it and people live there. Again, they have waited long enough for a sewerage system and an upgraded wastewater facility. They deserve it.

Similarly, Carrigaholt is part of our tourism offering in County Clare. It is a super facility and area and part of our Gaeltacht. Again, those people deserve an upgraded wastewater and sewerage system.

Broadford village has people who are prepared to invest in and develop it as a thriving rural area. At the moment, it has stagnated. It is static because, again, people are waiting for an improved sewerage and wastewater system.

I believe the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, should give serious consideration to the fund we spoke about at the meeting with the Minister last night.

Deputy Peter Burke

I thank Senator Conway again for raising this issue and for working on behalf of the residents in Doolin, Broadford, Cooraclare and Carrigaholt. It is important we respond to the challenges because we are clear in this country that private investment will be weak over the next number of months because of the coronavirus. That gives a key opportunity for the State to step in with public investment to ensure it keeps our economy strong. There is no better way to do that than to improve our infrastructure in our local towns and villages to give them the capacity to grow and realise their full potential. I will follow up on that meeting and we will try our best to prioritise this for 2021.

Local Authority Rates

Senator Pat Casey

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House today. One of the greatest challenges for us is how we attract people into public life. When it comes to councillors there are two real components, one of which is their pay and conditions. We have all made our contributions on that. I believe at this stage it has gone above all our pay grades in this House and sits at another level. Hopefully, we will have an answer to that shortly.

The second component involves trying to give councillors power that has a direct and immediate impact on their communities and the people they serve. When the Putting People First action programme was launched, I believed I saw change from a point of view of progression in restoring democracy at local level, specifically around the local property tax, LPT, process. We can now argue that because of the baselines and the equalisation fund, the LPT actually takes that flexibility away from councillors. Realistically, they are left with a small part of the budgetary process to allocate from a discretionary point of view.

I was a Member of the House and part of the process that brought through the Local Government Rates and other Matters Act 2019. We finished that process and it had unanimous support across all parties in the House. It dealt with the antiquated commercial rates process. It is still antiquated, but the 2019 Act tried to tidy it up. The part that received unanimous support and we all looked forward to was giving councillors the power to introduce a rates waiver scheme. The question today is about why that has not been enacted.

A year and a half has gone by since this Bill was passed. We all know our county development plan process. Most of our counties are reviewing or amending their county development plan process at this stage. The conditions in the Act were that if a council was going to introduce a rates waiver scheme, it had to be part of the county plan, local area plan or national planning framework. The other condition related to the local economic and community plan, which is a rolling document and can be changed at any time. Now is the appropriate time to enact this legislation because every councillor is now going through that process.

Covid-19 has resulted in a further decline of our towns and villages. We are trying to restore life to our main streets. The measure I have mentioned gives councils the opportunity and gives them back the power to which I believe they are entitled. It can make a difference to the people and the communities they represent. I know each scheme must be finally approved by the Minister, but that initial process needs to start now. We need to enact this good legislation, which restores powers to the councils and gives them the opportunity to incentivise business in their towns and villages.

I wrote to the Minister of State on this directly. I believe he also received a letter from a film studio in County Wicklow which put its case forward. It would have been receiving a benefit with regard to the levy scheme. It is, therefore, about restoring powers. When does the Minister of State see section 15 of the Act being enacted by the Minister to give the councillors the power to introduce a commercial rates waiver scheme?

Deputy Peter Burke

The Local Government Rates and other Matters Act 2019 was passed by the Oireachtas and enacted on 11 July 2019. Key elements of the Act include a modernisation of rates legislation and practice including variation of rates payment arrangements, the pro rata levying of rates on occupiers based on period in occupation within a year, the application of interest payments on unpaid rates, minimum charges for vacant commercial premises, a potential rates waiver scheme and amendment to the rate limitation order formula in place in the year following re-evaluation.

These new provisions will add to a suite of options already available to local authorities to support local businesses and ratepayers. Importantly, section 15 of the Act also provides for a rates waiver scheme to be delivered by a local authority to meet national and local policy objectives, including, for example, local area plans under the Planning and Development Act 2000 and local economic and community plans under the Local Government Act 2001.

Currently, only the sections of the Act relating to the amendment of the rate limitation order have been commenced. The commencement of the remaining elements of the Act depends on a number of factors, including the drafting of the requisite prescribed regulations, preparing circulars and guidance to local authorities and ensuring the local government sector will be in a position to have the IT and administrative processes in place to support this new provision fully. It is intended that the bulk of the provisions will be fully operational for the 2021 local authority budget cycle in November 2020. However, based on preparations, they have been delayed by several months due to the impact of Covid-19 and the associated crisis.

The impact of the Covid-19 crisis on local authorities and businesses in 2020 has been significant. The Government has provided a €900 million financial support package to fund the cost of a nine-month waiver of commercial rates, an unprecedented measure that offers support to businesses and certainty to local authorities.

My Department has necessarily prioritised ongoing engagement with local authorities on key financial matters and the development and implementation of a commercial rates waiver.

Plans to commence the legislation and introduce the regulations are intended to have effect in time for the 2022 local authority budgetary process. As elected members of local authorities are currently reviewing development plans, they are giving consideration to their own local authorities' objectives for particular areas for intended development, improving existing amenities. It is intended that section 15 of the Local Government Rates and other Matters Act 2019 will be effective for the next local authority budgetary cycle, which will enable elected members to reflect and support decisions they have made regarding development plans at this time in rate alleviation schemes.

Senator Pat Casey

I thank the Minister of State for the clarification. It is good news that the waiver will be available for the 2022 budgetary process. Nevertheless, on top of what he outlined, there needs to be education for councillors as to what they can and cannot do in respect of the process. The ones I have spoken to were not fully aware of section 15 and the power it gives them. Even if that process could be rolled out with each local authority to advise members what they are entitled to do in the county development plan process, that would be welcome. As we all know, it will take a while to get through the county development plan, and it is hoped the direct impact of this, as the Minister of State noted, will be available to the budgetary process in 2022. The Department might engage with local authority members and give them clear directions on what their powers are in this process, informing them that they should be able to avail of this waiver in the 2022 budgetary process, which is a year from today.

Deputy Peter Burke

I met the president of the Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, and his team yesterday and committed to holding quarterly meetings with them. Part of this relates to the engagement with councillors to provide core support to them in order that they will be aware of all the issues they can respond to in the chamber, which are very extensive at this time. The Office of the Planning Regulator provides courses for planning matters. One is taking place this week and there is ongoing engagement with councillors on that matter. I look forward to supporting the AILG. We can raise this issue with it and see what support we can provide it to outline to councillors the powers of the Act and their capacity to incentivise change or create waivers that will underwrite the county development plans they are currently producing.

School Accommodation

Senator Micheál Carrigy

I welcome the Minister of State. I raise the issue of an application for additional school accommodation by St. Mel's College, Longford, a school I attended a number of years ago. The college opened in September 1865, with 48 boarders and 28 day boys. For most of the next decade, the college was a major seminary, where students pursued philosophy and theology through to ordination. More than 650 former students of the college were ordained to the priesthood between 1865 and 2000. In 1965, the centenary of the college's foundation was marked with the building of a new wing to provide accommodation for 100 boarders, as well as a new refectory. Prefabricated buildings were also built to cope with the increase in numbers.

In 1996, there were 740 students and 42 teachers, while in 2002, the last boarding students departed, ending a tradition that began in 1865. In 2010, St. Mel's College welcomed the parishioners of Longford following the fire on Christmas Day 2009 in St. Mel's Cathedral, and for five years the school hosted mass for the parishioners in Longford. St. Mel's also has a great history of sporting achievement, and by the year 1994 had won a total of 28 Leinster GAA titles. The school is on a fantastic site and is lucky to have football fields, which are used by the school and are open to other groups, such as underage county hurling, and recently signed an agreement with Longford Athletics Club to provide an indoors athletics facility for the county.

The school has applied to the Department for additional school accommodation. Grant aid is sought to remove nine prefabricated classrooms and to replace them with nine classrooms in the existing building, the 1865 wing, which has a number of classrooms. If funding is received, these classrooms will include a large technical graphics room, a guidance suite, a computer room and a music room. St. Mel's wants to move these classes into the 1865 building, as this would bring the school back to its original home and save having to build a new building to replace the prefabricated buildings, which are now in a state of decline. A recent architect's report on the prefabricated buildings commented that the college continues to maintain the demountable buildings and keep them decorated but that they are in poor condition. It went on to say there were poor insulation values, that the buildings were not up to current fire safety standards, and that the rooms are appropriate for temporary, not permanent, accommodation use.

The college was built as an educational environment for boys after the Famine and the vision at the time was to provide education for boys in the surrounding areas. This vision has not changed and the school would like to bring the 1865 building back to use by using it to house a total of 15 classrooms, where the boys will once again walk the corridors and receive their second level education. This building provides excellent additional space on the first and second floors to provide these additional classrooms, which the school feels will satisfy the growing numbers in the school over the coming years and into the future. At present, there are a total of 560 pupils, with a projected enrolment in 2021 of 580. A large number of pupils from Longford town have to travel in excess of ten miles outside the town area to receive secondary education due to the low number of places available in the town. Longford County Council is replacing with railings a 7 ft high wall on St. Mel's Road to open up the views of this historic building. I hope the Department can follow suit by providing funding to bring this old building back to life and to have students walk its corridors again.

Minister of State at the Department of Education (Deputy Josepha Madigan)

I thank the Senator for bringing this matter to my attention. It provides me with the opportunity to clarify the current position for St. Mel's College, Longford, in respect of the additional classroom space. I am sure the school is delighted to have the Senator as an alumnus representing them in the House.

St. Mel's College is a Catholic all-boys primary school under the patronage of the Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise. In September 2019, the school had an enrolment of 548 pupils, and enrolments have grown in the college by more than 18% in the past five years. In June 2020, the Department received an application from the school authority of St. Mel's College for capital funding under the additional school accommodation scheme. The college has applied, as the Senator noted, for the replacement of nine prefabricated mainstream class units on site and for the refurbishment of a building dating from 1865 to provide specialist classroom space for a technical graphics room, a guidance suite, a computer room, a music room and a science laboratory.

Officials from the Department have been liaising with the school authority, seeking clarification on a number of issues that have now been agreed on. The planning and building unit within the Department deals with those clarifications. Before the assessment process can be finalised, members of the Department's technical team will have to consider whether the 1865 building is a viable option for reconfiguration. I can confirm that this assessment will be carried out as quickly as possible and the school authority will be kept informed of all developments. I note what the Senator said about the architect's report and the fact it found there were poor conditions and insulation and fire safety concerns, and that the prefabricated buildings are designed for temporary, as distinct from permanent, accommodation. I am sure that is something the Department will take into account.

Under Project Ireland 2040, the schools sector will receive a total of €8.8 billion over the period 2018 to 2027 and capital planning and budgeting is undertaken multi-annually. For the Senator's information, the key drivers of capital investment in the school sector are demographic change, alignment with housing provision and national planning at school planning area level, construction costs, catch-up to address a legacy of underinvestment, and climate action objectives, including deep energy retrofit.

In addition, there are also three additional cost drivers which occurred after the original NDP capital allocation for pre-2018, namely, the school remediation programme, Covid-19 and the programme for Government.

Suffice to say, if the assessment is favourable, the school would be able to proceed to planning. We hope that will happen. The specific allocations in each area under the NDP capital allocation are closely monitored and can be adjusted from year to year to take account of project progress and other the factors.

The Department proactively manages all of its capital allocation across subheads and budget lines to advance its school building and other capital investment priorities. It is within these parameters that a building project for St. Mel's College in Longford will be progressed. The Department always has a large pipeline of projects for delivery under the school building programme. I hope the application for St. Mel's College will be successful and will be able to proceed to the planning stage.

Senator Micheál Carrigy

I am delighted that the project will be moved to an assessment stage, which I believe will be successful. The school engaged a professional architect to assess the possibilities for the project. The report which stated that it was viable to bring the building back into use was submitted to the Department.

We discussed costs for education. This project would provide value for money and would bring a large building within the confines of the town within walking distance of students back into use rather than incurring the substantial costs of providing a new building. The building is available. I am confident that the assessment will be positive and I am delighted that the project is moving forward. I look forward to it being successful.

Deputy Josepha Madigan

I thank the Senator. I wish to reiterate that the concerns the architect raised in his report will be taken into consideration by the building and planning unit. The distance that pupils have to travel to go to school will also be taken into account. What will primarily be taken into account is the fact that it is a building dating from 1865 and whether it is a viable option for reconfiguration in the first instance. I have been told by the Department that the assessment will proceed as soon as possible. It is to be hoped that we will be in a favourable position to come back to the Senator.

I thank St. Mel's College for co-operating with the Department in terms of outlining any issues that need to be agreed. They have been agreed, which is good. That has been satisfactory in terms of concluding that aspect of the process. Once the assessment has been completed we will then be in a position to see whether the project can proceed to planning, and I hope that it will.

Residential Institutions Redress Scheme

Senator Paul Gavan

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. For decades this country placed children behind bars, the vast majority for reasons of poverty and class. Fr. Flanagan of the boy's town schools in the United States visited the Irish industrial schools in 1946 and described them as a national disgrace. That led to a public debate in the Dáil and national media exposure. Their abolition was decades away and exposing the true horror of what went on within the walls was even further away.

As the Minister of State knows, Caranua was established to aid those who survived institutional abuse in Ireland. This month, its CEO stated that in the next few months it would finalise its operations while preparing to close on Thursday, 3 December of this year. The final funding support payments will be processed by 11 December, which is just two weeks away.

I have been contacted by representatives of some of the clients of Caranua. As I said, it is ceasing funding and winding down. However, it will not have completed its caseload by the time the fund is closed. I understand there are 86 outstanding cases, and I will briefly outline two such outstanding cases, the details of which have already been forwarded to the Department of Education.

In the first case, an applicant to Caranua applied for housing assistance in 2014. The application was supported by occupational therapists employed by Caranua. Three separate reports recommended that Caranua should pay for an extension to provide the applicant with a downstairs bathroom and bedroom. He cannot access the upstairs part of his home unassisted and is forced to urinate in his backyard and sleep in a chair. In February 2020, Caranua finally agreed to provide the person with funding for the extension. However, that funding has still not been provided.

A second person applied for help with improvements and repairs to her home. Caranua appointed its preferred supplier, but the work was carried out to a very poor standard. Other applications the person made were not dealt with at all. It was only after the last meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts, when this issue was raised with Caranua, that the case began to be resolved. Immediately after that meeting, Caranua contacted the person and apologised. That process is ongoing but is still a long way from being completed.

I have some questions for the Minister of State. What will happen to the outstanding applications following the closure of Caranua? While it said it believes all applications will be resolved by 11 December 2020, what contingencies have the Department put in place in the event that there are any outstanding applications? I believe that will very much be the case. On 4 November, it confirmed that there were 86 extending applications. There were also seven outstanding appeals.

Caranua intends to delete all the case files when it closes. What consultation was undertaken with survivors before this decision was taken? Once it closes, what supports will be available to survivors of historical institutional child abuse, many of whom have not received any financial assistance? Will the Government respond to the call for urgent measures to address the needs identified by the survivor consultation group which reported in July 2019?

Deputy Josepha Madigan

I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. He will be aware that the residential institutions statutory fund board, also known as Caranua, was established in 2013. Its specific purpose was to disburse the cash contributions of €110 million pledged by religious congregations following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, more commonly referred to as the Ryan report.

The contributions received from the congregations were held in an investment account managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and, including interest, the total funding available to Caranua was €101.38 million. Since its establishment, it has provided grants and funding supports to more than 6,000 survivors of institutional abuse, and for the most part those payments have related to health and housing. It has also provided support to survivors for education, training and exceptional needs.

The 2012 Act provides that all expenditure by Caranua must be met by the statutory fund, including grants and administrative expenditure, and does not provide for the Exchequer to supplement that fund in any way. Therefore, in anticipation of the exhaustion of the statutory fund, Caranua announced in 2018 that it would not accept new applications after 1 August 2018 unless there were exceptional circumstances. I understand it undertook an extensive publicity campaign to ensure that survivors were aware of this date, targeted in particular at survivors who had not previously benefited from the fund.

Caranua has since that time dealt mainly with applications on hand. To progress applications, it is dependent to a large extent on the receipt of paperwork such as quotes or invoices from survivors. Its application adviser team has worked to establish personalised timelines for applicants to ensure that their applications can be progressed, although the Covid-19 pandemic has, for obvious reasons, had an impact.

At this time, Caranua has only a small number of applications remaining to be finalised and has reduced its staffing component during the wind-down phase. It expects to have made any final payments by 11 December, as the Senator mentioned, and most of the remaining staff will leave the organisation on 31 December. For that reason, it is not expected that any applications will remain open when it is formally dissolved. Therefore, it is not expected that any transitional arrangements will be required. It expects to have utilised all of its available funding at the time of dissolution, so there are unlikely to be any significant cash assets remaining.

Non-cash assets are unlikely to have a significant value. Its fixed assets had a book value of about €74,000 as of 31 December 2018.

Survivors have expressed concerns to the Minister, Deputy Foley, about how their needs into the future are going to be met, and the Senator mentioned some of those. I believe it is the intention of the Minister, Deputy Foley, to bring to Government proposals for a package of ongoing supports for survivors and for those supports to be in place when Caranua is dissolved. My understanding is that, primarily, most of the moneys have been spent on health and social services and educational services. Caranua is prohibited from spending money on rent and mortgages but it can spend money on white goods, and dental and ophthalmic costs have also been prevalent. I understand that, from 2 August 2018 until September 2020, there were some 342 late applications which came into that cohort under the exceptional circumstances bracket.

Senator Paul Gavan

I thank the Minister of State for the response. I am somewhat concerned. I have had prior dealings with Caranua through the education committee in the last Parliament. I am aware its dealings were far from satisfactory on a number of occasions. I would be concerned at the Minister of State's reference to "a small number" of cases because I certainly do not think 86 is a small number of cases, and that was the position just over two weeks ago when the statement from Caranua confirmed it was 86 cases. I would be almost certain there will be cases outstanding. I would like a reassurance from the Minister of State that transitional arrangements will be in place to ensure that, in any outstanding cases, there will be funding and solutions for those people. As I have had to describe, unfortunately, right now, one man is having to urinate in his backyard and to sleep in a chair. That is not untypical of the type of cases we are talking about. Let me remind the Minister of State that these are people who have been victimised several times over by the State already. We cannot fail them again.

Deputy Josepha Madigan

I completely agree with the Senator's sentiment in that regard. Obviously, due to the particular impact of residential abuse on survivors, the Department is extremely mindful of that. Caranua was set up and designed to pay out, not that any money can ever compensate for what people have suffered and endured in this type of abuse or, indeed, any abuse. Having said that, moneys are available and late applications will be possible and have been possible since 1 August 2018. The Department told me that 342 late applications have come in since August 2018 and if there are transitional arrangements to be made, they will be made. My understanding is they will not be required at this moment in time. Obviously, it is always open to existing or new applicants to look for funding.

Sitting suspended 11.23 a.m. and resumed at 11.30 a.m.