I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 65 together.
I made the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 (Commencement) Order 2014 (S.I. No 20 of 2014) on 28th January. This Order commenced sections 21 and 22 of the 2012 Act which provide for the appointment of an appeals officer and for the appeals process in relation to decisions of a decision maker of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board. On the same day I made the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund (Appeals) Regulations 2014 (S.I. No 21 of 2014) which set out the procedures to be followed in appeals. I recently appointed Mr Pat Whelan, former Director General of the Office of the Ombudsman, to be the inaugural Appeals Officer of the Fund. In accordance with the 2012 Act, a former resident who is dissatisfied with a decision maker's decision on their application or a person whom a decision maker decides is not a former resident within the meaning of the Act can appeal to the Appeals Officer.
No advance has been sought from the National Treasury Management Agency investment account pursuant to section 30(3) of the 2012 Act. The Appeals Officer will be paid for determining appeals on a per diem basis while the administrative support will be provided by my Department. The costs of the Appeals Officer which will be met from the investment account will be dependent on the level of appeals involved. While it is not proposed to recoup the costs of the administrative support from the investment fund at this stage, this matter will be kept under review. From inquiries made by my officials I understand that the Fund, which uses the service name Caranua, had received 1,914 applications at the end of February. The first part of the application process is to verify that an applicant is actually eligible to apply. At end February 501 applicants had been confirmed to be eligible. Once confirmed as eligible applicants are then appointed an adviser. The role of the adviser is to provide assistance in the making of an application for services. Advisers have been appointed for 64 applicants and 4 applications have been approved. No applications have been rejected.