Pat Rabbitte
Ceist:15 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the operation to date of the Residential Institutions Redress Board. [21517/03]
Written Answers. - Residential Institutions Redress Board.
The Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 was signed into law by the President on 10 April 2002. The Act provided for the establishment of both the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee. I can confirm that both the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee have been put in place and are fully operational.
The Residential Institutions Redress Board is located at Block 5, Belfield Office Park, Beech Hill Road, Clonskeagh, Dublin 4. The Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee is located at Floor 1, Frederick House, 19 South Frederick Street, Dublin 2.
Judge Seán O'Leary, a serving Circuit Court judge, has been appointed chairperson of the redress board and five ordinary members have also been appointed. The review committee is chaired by Judge Frank Murphy, a former Supreme Court judge and two other members have also been appointed. A total of 27 administration staff have been appointed to the redress board and the review committee.
The purpose of the Act is to set up a framework to enable victims of institutional abuse to apply for redress. The provisions of the Act allows the board to make awards on a lower threshold of proof than is required in taking a case through the courts. An applicant is expected to provide proof of his or her identity, that he or she was resident in an institution, that he or she was injured while so resident and that the injury is consistent with any allegation of abuse that is alleged to have occurred while so resident. An applicant may accept or reject an award made to him or her or may submit the award for a review to the review committee.
Application forms and a guide to the application process have been available from the board's office since 2 December 2002 and are also available from the board's website at www.rirb.ie. Applications will be accepted for a period of three years from the formal establishment date of the board, that is, 16 December 2002.
The Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee are independent of my Department. However, I understand that the board has received in access of 2,000 applications to date and that the applications are being received at a rate of 50 per week. The number of awards or settlement offers made by the board is 200 and the average award paid to date is €80,745.