Vol. 573 No. 2
112 Ms Burton asked the Minister for Education and Science the situation regarding records of former residents of State institutions and the arrangement he announced he has made with Barnardos; if an agreement has been concluded with Barnardos; the cost of the service; and if former residents and their representatives and families can refuse to allow their records to be sent to Barnardos. [24666/03]
The Department of Education and Science maintains archive records in relation to approximately 41,000 former residents of the old industrial and reformatory schools system. These former pupils were placed in the schools by way of court orders. The records are maintained in the Department's offices in Athlone and are in paper form with copies in electronic format.
My Department currently processes requests for access to personal records from former residents of industrial and reformatory schools under the Freedom of Information Act 1997. It has been the experience of the Department that the Freedom of Information Act is sometimes not the most appropriate means of dealing with such requests as the records can, in some cases, contain sensitive information. Furthermore, in many cases, the release of documents results in the need for individual to be able to access services such as counselling, tracing and mediation. With this in mind and in order to provide a comprehensive, compassionate and supportive service to former residents, the Department provides financial support to the Barnardo's Origins service to enable it to provide an information and mediation service for former residents who wish to access their records.
A service agreement, which governs the operation of the Barnardos-Origins service, is in place and I have requested officials in the residential institutions redress unit of my Department to send a copy of it to the Deputy.
A copy of all relevant records held by the Department has been given to Barnardos in electronic format to facilitate the operation of the service. Access to any records that the Department has supplied to Barnardos is strictly controlled and is restricted to those personnel working in the Origins service. Furthermore records will only then be accessed by Origins personnel where a former resident requests the Origins service to provide him or her with relevant personal information. This is in line with section 4(1)(ii) of the service agreement, where Barnados have undertaken to access only those records of former residents in respect of whom an application has been received by Origins.
The Department grant aids the operation of the service and provided it with €200,000 in 2002 and to date in 2003 has provided it with €475, 117. This financial assistance funds both the employment of staff by the Origins service and administrative expenditure.
While I would actively encourage former residents to avail of this worthwhile service, I would also like to reiterate that it is only an alternative to the freedom of information route and it is entirely optional for former residents as to which route they wish to pursue. All former residents may exercise their statutory rights and apply to my Department for access to their records under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 1997 if they so wish.
