The Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee are independent of my Department. However, on the basis of the most recent information available from the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the board has received 3,945 applications. To date, the board has made offers to 1,370 individual applicants. The average award is approximately €77,000. A total of 33 cases have been referred to the review committee, of which 23 have been heard.
The board provides regular updates as to the number of claims received on its website, www.rirb.ie. The redress board has recently finalising its first annual report which covers the period 16 December 2002 to 31 December 2003. The report has been laid before each of the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Court settlements have been reached in relation to three cases. While the details of these settlements are confidential, I can confirm that the settlement in each case was within the guidelines for the level of awards that can be made by the redress board, as provided for in the Residential Institutions Redress Act (section 17) Regulations 2002.
