Fund for abuse survivors won’t be extended

Supports from the €110m fund administered by Caranua are not to be extended beyond survivors of institutional child abuse, Education Minister Richard Bruton has decided.

His department has concluded that the statutory fund, which is still short over €7m of the amount promised by at least one religious order, will be fully spent on services for past residents of institutions for whom it was originally intended.

There had been calls during a review of the fund’s administration to widen the eligibility to other survivors, such as those who had been through mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries, the Bethany home in Dublin, or other institutions.