16 Oct 2019, 14:59
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will meet tomorrow, Thursday, with Caranua, the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board.
The focus of the PAC’s examination will be the financial statements of Caranua. Officials from the Department of Education and Skills will also attend.
The Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board (RISFB), known as Caranua, which comes under the remit of the Department of Education and Skills, was established under the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, 2012.
It oversees the use of the cash contributions of up to €110 million pledged by religious congregations to support the current needs of eligible survivors and improve their wellbeing, by paying for approved services in the areas of health, education and housing that are not readily available through public bodies.
The most recent financial statements show that cash contributions of €4.9m were received in the year and that nearly €15m was paid out to survivors. The value of the fund at 31 December 2017 was €26.9m.
Since the inception of the fund, over €101m had been received in cash contributions from religious congregations and €66.8m had been paid to survivors. In that period administration costs totalled €7.6m.
Chairman of the PAC, Seán Fleming TD, said: “The Committee will also be keen to discussthe up to date financial position of Caranua, and how Caranua exercises control over grant payments in light of the inadequacies which have been drawn attention to by the C&AG in that regard.
“The PAC will also be keen to discuss with the Department the most recent update from it on the status of property transfers and cash payments from religious congregations towards the costs incurred by the State in responding to residential institutional child abuse.”
The meeting will start at 9am in Committee room 3, click here to view.