Institutional abuse fund to be wound down by end of the year

OPW Minister Patrick O'Donovan has said he “estimates” that a €10m rental overpayment made on the Department of Health’s headquarters can be recouped. File picture: Daragh McSweeney/Provision

Institutional abuse fund Caranua is to be wound down before the end of the year at a cost of €300,000.

The Public Accounts Committee has heard that while there are “no unresolved applications” for redress from survivors, nevertheless at least 76 people are being worked with regarding a prospective bid for compensation.

The body, first set up in 2012, said all applications would be fully dealt with by December 11, 2020.

Caranua, which operated a redress fund worth €111m, is due before the Pac on December 3. It had been due for winding up earlier in 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic had seen that action delayed.

Speaking at the Pac, chair Brian Stanley TD said that since legislation to wind down Caranua could be brought before the Oireachtas “quite quickly”, that it would be important to ensure that no winding down would take place before all cases were resolved.

The body said in its correspondence with the committee that ongoing support services for survivors of abuse are not within its remit, and that such services are “a matter for Government”, something which Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy described as “of concern”.

Meanwhile, Minister for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan has said he “estimates” that a €10m rental overpayment made on the Department of Health’s headquarters on Baggot Street in Dublin can be recouped.

Mr O’Donovan, under questioning from Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall, said the overpayment – which resulted from an incorrect measurement standard being used on the building at Miesian Plaza – was “a mistake” on the part of the State, and is “not satisfactory”.

He said he was “hopeful” that “we can come to an accommodation with our landlord” adding that it is “not in our interests or the landlord's interests not to do that”, given the Government may be in need of additional office accommodation in the near future.