Bruton says review to start soon as agency paying survivors of abuse condemned Marie O'Halloran Last Updated: Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 21:38 A review of Caranua will start shortly, the Minister for Education said on Wednesday as the agency charged with making award payments to institutional abuse victims was sharply criticised in the Dáil. TDs criticised the agency for paying more than €50,000 to date in rent for its OPW-managed offices from the survivors’ fund. Richard Bruton said Caranua’s board “is independent and has to arrange its own accommodation and it must meet the costs for that accommodation from its own resources”, as was stated in the legislation. Independent TD Catherine Connolly described Caranua as a classic example “of an institution becoming more important than the people it is meant to serve”. She said it had failed a large number of applicants, adding to their abuse through negative treatment and poor delivery of service. She pointed to a number of serious and unacceptable breaches of the legislation relating to the €110 million fund, the high turnover of staff and the contracts signed without the knowledge of the Minister. Received nothing Many TDs complained that some survivors who applied more than three years ago had still received nothing. Ms Connolly highlighted the €800,000 a counselling service Towards Healing expected to receive from the funding, the €2 million spent on private companies and the more than €100,000 spent on rent taken from the fund. Mr Bruton acknowledged that there were genuine concerns that needed to be addressed including a stronger charter and “good practices”. But he said the portrayal of the agency by TDs “as if they were trying to protect their monies for some selfish reason to prevent money from being disbursed and to put obstacles in their way” did not represent what Caranua was trying to do. “I don’t doubt there were individual experiences where people came back very dissatisfied” and he said some people did not have an ease of dealing with bureaucracy and they “felt abused”. But he said “we have established requirements on how money is spent and that has to be observed by any board that is dealing with public money”. Rectified Mr Bruton also acknowledged concerns about issues for survivors from the UK who might not have been aware of the scheme or had difficulty accessing it. He said Caranua had public guidelines for survivors outside Ireland. “I recognise there are groups that may not have been reached” and that that would be rectified. “I will draw the attention of Caranua to the debate we have had because there is a genuine attempt to improve and meet the needs” of survivors. And he said a new board with a broad mix of experience was being established. Ms Connolly was introducing a private member’s motion calling for an immediate review of its operations, including eligibility criteria and a new survivor-led customer charter as well as establishing a system of appropriate oversight. Ms Connolly said then education minister Ruairí Quinn had promised a review within two years of the establishment in 2013 of the fund, but since then “we have had two more ministers for education and a review still has not been carried out of an organisation that has lurched from crisis to crisis
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thetimes.co.uk - Abuse victims criticise €110m state agency "Caranua was set up in 2012 to manage the €110 million fund and make payments to survivors who have health, housing or educational needs. There is €48 million left in the fund. The Times has spoken to ten survivors who have had negative experiences dealing with the agency. Some said they had waited up to 18 months for cheques to be paid. Others complained of calls not being answered and emails not being replied to in a timely manner. They also accused staff of making hurtful remarks and said they were afraid to report incidents they were unhappy with in case it led to their payments being denied. Some said they were confused about their entitlements and that the application process was not explained to them fully."
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‘It feels like they are just waiting for us to die’
One survivor spoke of terrible flashbacks of his time at St Joseph’s School in Ferryhouse, Clonmel Jerry doesn’t know where he’s from. The 57-year-old grandfather of four spent 18 years in three different religious institutions: the Industrial School for Girls and Junior Boys in Ballaghaderreen, Mount Carmel Industrial School in Moate and St Michael’s in Dublin.
“The sexual abuse was horrific,” he said. He cannot remember a single day before he was 18 when he wasn’t abused in some way. Like all ten of the survivors The Times spoke to, Jerry was nervous about state schemes such as Caranua that were set up to compensate him for what happened. Caranua is tasked with dividing €110 million between survivors of institutions who have health, educational or housing needs.
“Nobody can bring back time. All the government can do is give us money. There’s nothing else they could do, not a thing,” he said. “The thing about me is, and other survivors will tell you this, I will never ever know what it’s like to wake up as a kid. That kills me. That’s why at Christmas I go to my daughters’ and I sit down and watch Mary Poppins. I try to live, I try and live the kids’ dream.”
His house is damp and some of the walls are close to collapsing. His application to Caranua included a new wardrobe, other housing improvements and a keyboard, because he enjoyed music. Last summer Caranua implemented a €15,000 cap. Jerry has been refused his wardrobe. He has tried to contact Caranua to say the cap had not been explained to him, but has been frustrated by a lack of a response.
“I go home and look at that keyboard, €700 worth, and I have no wardrobe to hang up me clothes,” he said. He was also denied a washing machine, but said he was “used to” hand washing clothes after his years in the institutional schools.
“The stress [Caranua] are causing people is unreal. And none of us are getting any younger. Sometimes it feels like they’re just waiting for us to die,” Jerry said.
Declan, not his real name, said he suppressed for decades the memory of what happened to him at St Joseph’s School in Ferryhouse, Clonmel, when he was 15. Decades later the memory came back when he was married with children.
“I started remembering Ferryhouse. It started to become very frightening, very scary, my story wasn’t great,” he said. “At night-time, it was terrible.”
He had prostate cancer in his forties and afterwards would struggle to make it to the bathroom in his house from his downstairs bedroom. He said Caranua did not help pay for a toilet downstairs but offered to refurbish his upstairs bathroom. “They were talking about needing a ‘strong medical need’,” he said. “But I had cancer.”
A lot of survivors left the institutional schools with no ability to read or write. Some struggle with forms and others have spoken about their natural distrust of authority being exacerbated by what they claimed was Caranua’s failure to respond to calls or emails in a timely manner.
The Aislinn Centre, an educational and support centre for survivors in Dublin, has taken on the task of helping many try to contact Caranua. Staff at the centre have noticed a reluctance among survivors to make a complaint because it has to go through their individual case worker.
Caranua lists a PO box address on its website. Out of frustration, some survivors have said they tried to speak to someone face-to-face at its former Frederick Street office but were turned away by security.
Paul, not his real name, told The Times his application for for heating improvements was approved by the agency 18 months ago. He said Caranua then lost his application and later said it had never been approved. Paul had retained his copy, which he showed the agency last year. He still has not received the cheque Caranua said he is owed and is worried about a deposit due soon for the work.
Pierce, 68, said he was “lucky” compared with other survivors because he only lived at St Teresa’s mother and baby home in Blackrock for less than a year. “I was seven. I was there and my first day I was introduced to a priest and he sort of had me for the best part of two weeks. By the time he was finished with me, that was my life over with,” he said.
Caranua had initially refused him funding for a house “I was told, ‘we’re not running a candy shop’.” He eventually sought free legal aid and after a solicitor’s letter was sent, the funding was granted.
Michael, 74, said he was thankful for the financial aid he received from Caranua but that the process had been unnecessarily stressful. He had been in the institutional school in Artane between the age of 7 and 16.
“They were losing files, they were losing this, that and the other. It was lucky I had a file [copy], they weren’t going to give the payment to me,” he said.
One survivor approached The Times to defend Caranua and its work. Vincent, not his real name, was institutionalised at the age of two and never had a visitor until he was seven years old. A man who said he was his older brother arrived and gave him a bag of sweets and one and elevenpence ha’penny. He promised he would take him out the following week.
“I was so excited that I was going to be leaving the following Saturday, I gave the money out to all my friends,” Vincent said, and then started to cry. “And I never saw him again.”
The next time anyone gave him anything was when he was 13 and in St Joseph’s institutional school in Artane when a local family sent him an Easter egg.
“The priest said there was a card and an egg for me, ‘but you’re not getting it’,” Vincent said. “That would have been my first Easter egg.”
Vincent said that while his experience of Caranua “wasn’t perfect” he was grateful that the agency existed.
thetimes.co.uk - ‘It feels like they are just waiting for us to die’‘It feels like they are just waiting for us to die’ thetimes.co.uk
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Victims’ agency has questions to answer, Fianna Fáil says
Survivors feel that their money is being squandered, Thomas Byrne said. Fianna Fáil is demanding the head of Caranua appear before an Oireachtas committee after The Times reported that the state agency set up to compensate survivors of institutional abuse was accused of wasting redress funds.
The €110 million fund was established to compensate victims of abuse in industrial schools using money supplied by religious congregations. Caranua was set up in 2012 to manage it and make payments to survivors with health, housing or educational needs.
Mary Higgins, the agency’s chief executive, received a €10,000 raise in 2015, taking her salary to more than €87,000. Caranua also admitted that it had used “expensive” agency staff in 2015, hiring 17 extra people in addition to the 10 core staff already approved.
The comptroller and auditor general (C&AG), the state spending watchdog, recently said it had identified issues with “financial control” at the agency.
In 2015, the second year in which Caranua started to grant money to survivors, it paid out more than €28 million. A report by the C&AG in January found no evidence that receipts and invoices had been filed to Caranua in 85 per cent of cases. It also found that quotes for housing and health needs had not been presented in about a third.
Caranua was already scheduled to appear before the public accounts committee on April 15 to answer questions about its finances. Thomas Byrne, Fianna Fáil’s education spokesman, has now written to the Oireachtas education committee asking it to summon Ms Higgins for questioning over how the agency is being run.
“Survivors of institutional child abuse have rightfully queried why the administration costs are being paid out of the general compensation fund. They feel that money set aside for them is being unnecessarily squandered. I have serious concerns that the increasing administrative costs will reduce the redress funds available to survivors,” Mr Byrne said.
After reviewing its finances, Caranua imposed a €15,000 limit on payouts last June to guarantee the fund’s “sustainability”. The Times has spoken to ten survivors of abuse who were distressed to be told last year there was a limit on their claims.
Some said they had waited up to 18 months for cheques to be paid. Others complained of calls not being answered and delays in replying to emails.
They also accused Caranua staff of making hurtful remarks, including one survivor who said he was told not to consider the agency a “sweet shop.” Some said they were confused about their entitlements and that the application process was not explained to them fully.
“Serious concerns have been raised regarding the administration of the Caranua fund. Some people have complained of being left waiting up to 18 months for cheques to be paid. Question marks have been raised over the administration costs for the fund as it has doubled its spending on wages between 2014 and 2015. Expenses claims have also risen over the same period of time,” Mr Byrne said.
Jerry, 57, had told The Times that he felt staff at Caranua were just “waiting for [survivors] to die.” He spent 18 years in three different schools where he suffered physical and sexual abuse.
His application to Caranua had included a new wardrobe, other housing improvements and a keyboard, because he enjoyed music. After Caranua implemented the €15,000 cap last summer, he was refused his wardrobe.
“I go home and look at that keyboard, €700 worth, and I have no wardrobe to hang up me clothes,” he said.
“The stress [Caranua] are causing people is unreal. And none of us are getting any younger. Sometimes it feels like they’re just waiting for us to die.”
A spokeswoman for Caranua told The Times that the agency had written to the education committee asking to attend so that it could explain its work.
The agency had previously said Caranua would welcome the feedback of survivors who had spoken to The Times and that Ms Higgins was satisfied that staff “provide a professional, responsive and compassionate response to people who apply to us, in keeping with our core principles and values”. Caranua had taken “a number of steps” to address the weaknesses identified in its financial management in 2015, including a review of controls over payments.
thetimes.co.uk - Victims’ agency has questions to answer
From a lifeline to RTE’s Liveline
"As I happened upon Liveline on Monday 20th March, I heard a woman who was very angry and antagonistic on the phone and thought to myself: “This is a lady who must have been very badly wronged.”
How wrong was I? It turned out she was Mary Higgins, CEO of Caranua, the body set up to manage €110million from religious congregations for Church abuse survivors.
Mary Higgins, CEO of Caranua
Earlier in the week, victims told the Irish Times that they felt “re-abused” by Caranua in how it dealt with claims. Some said they were shouted at or ignored and waited months for contact.
Caranua denies the claims and Higgins was on Liveline coming across quite shouty to say how they treat everyone with compassion and dignity.
She didn’t sound very convincing, talking loudly at Joe Duffy in a defensive tone that many will recognise from dealings with uppish execs.
In a quote read out by Duffy, Higgins had said of victims: “We have to face the fact the damage that has been done to these people is so deep that it doesn’t matter what anybody does.
“It’s never going to be enough to satisfy them and make them feel cared for, loved, honoured or whatever else.”
She went on to say some of them “will never be happy” and that their grievances “suit a narrative”.
It was a jaw-dropping display of arrogance, lacking rather than providing compassion.
Higgins, to her credit, did stay on for the full show to fiercely defend Caranua, but the damage has been done to its credibility, despite at least one survivor who rang in with praise.
There is deafening silence from the Government about Caranua’s behaviour and from the wider media.
The revelations about mother and baby homes and abuse survivors reached a crescendo only two weeks ago, yet Liveline’s team ploughs a lonely furrow doing superb work to keep these important stories on the air."
Comment by Oliver Callan
22nd March 2017,(
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Further info LISTEN via https://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/programmes/2017/0320/861175-liveline-monday-20-march-2017/
Caranua paid €100k to Church-funded counselling service for clerical abuse survivors
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Caranua paid almost €100,000 to a Catholic Church-funded counselling service to provide support to abuse survivors over the last two years.
The revelation is contained in documents sent by Caranua to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), following its appearance before the committee last month. Caranua was established by the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 to oversee the use of cash contributions of up to €110m, pledged by the religious congregations, to support the needs of survivors of institutional child abuse.
In the documents, Caranua outline details of €94,648 it paid to the Towards Healing counselling service in respect of 59 individuals in 2015 and 2016. The bulk of this, €87,263, was paid in 2015, with the remainder paid the following year.
Towards Healing provides a face-to-face and telephone counselling service to people who experienced abuse in institutions managed by religious congregations on behalf of the State, clerical sexual abuse, and to others impacted by such abuse. According to its website, it is funded by way of a €3m budget every year, which comes exclusively from the Catholic Church.
In its submission to the PAC, Caranua said it initially advises anyone seeking support to avail of counselling, free of charge from Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy (ICAP), National Counselling Service, and Connect, which are all funded by the State, and Towards Healing. It also said it outlines the services, their origins, and the sources of funding to survivors.
However, unlike other counselling services, Towards Healing introduced a cap of 80 on the number of free sessions that an individual could avail of. It then approached Caranua to enter into an arrangement whereby a person who had reached this cap and required further treatment, could apply to Caranua for support.
Caranua said the concern that the cap was introduced in order to avail of funding from the abuse fund was discussed by the board.
“This matter was considered by the board over a number of meetings during 2014 and a number of meetings were also held between the chair and CEO of both Towards Healing and Caranua (19th March, 5th June, and 15th July).
“The concern that the cap had been introduced in order to avail of funding through Caranua and that this payment from Caranua for services to Towards Healing would, in effect, be a subsidy from one fund supported by Catholic bodies to another, was raised and considered by the board. A decision, in principle, to enter into an agreement with Towards Healing was made by the board at its meeting on 19 June,” Caranua wrote to the PAC.
Caranua told PAC the board was of the opinion that the agreement would help ensure the continuation of services to those who had been clinically assessed as needing those services, while at the same time removing the necessity for individual applicants to provide Caranua with quotes and receipts.
Last week, the Irish Examiner revealed that concerns about an increasing “level of aggression” aimed at Caranua CEO Mary Higgins by abuse survivors at public meetings were raised by board members last year. The revelation is contained in minutes of a board meeting at the River Lee Hotel in Cork in April of last year. https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/caranua-paid-100k-to-church-funded-counselling-service-for-clerical-abuse-survivors-450812.html
Oireachtas committee hears call on Caranaua chief executive to resign
‘We make mistakes...and when that happens we say we’re sorry’, responds Mary Higgins
Tue, May 30, 2017
The chief executive of Caranua, the independent statutory organisation charged with managing a fund to improve the lives of survivors of institutional abuse, should “step aside” an Oireachtas committee has heard.
Senator Lynn Ruane called on Mary Higgins to resign from her role, at the Education Committee on Tuesday. All committee members present said they had had significant complaints from survivors about their engagement with Caranua.
Ms Higgins said she was not aware of the complaints and it was difficult for Caranua to address them as a result.
Caranua, which means ‘new friend’, was established under the 2012 Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act, to manage a €110 million fund provided by the religious, to improve survivors’ lives. Survivors can apply to the fund for grants for such services as counselling, medical treatment, education or therapies.
The organisation has come under fire in recent weeks following claims by some survivors that they had been “retraumatised” by their engagement with it, and due to statements by Ms Higgins about survivors in March, in an interview with The Irish Times and subsequently on RTÉ radio, in which she said some survivors “would never be happy”.
Senator Ruane quoted from a letter sent to survivors after the value of the services they had received had reached a cap of €15,000, in which they are told: “We hope you will continue to enjoy the benefits of what you have received”.
She said the language was offensive as it implied the fund was a “gift” for which they should be grateful. She could not believe the board could support her in her position as chief executive.
“I feel in my opinion with language like that... I believe you should step aside from your position.”
She asked why the cap of €15,000 had been imposed in June 2016, when Caranua had committed to meeting survivors’ ongoing needs. She said “ongoing needs don’t have caps”.
Catherine Connolly, TD, said it was her belief Caranua had established an “unjust” and “inequitable” system, while committee chair Fiona O’Loughlin, said she had heard mainly “negative” reports from survivors of Caranua.
“They have felt they were not respected...It is very concerning.”
Catherine Martin TD described the language Ms Higgins had used about survivors as “disgraceful”, and said she found it difficult to believe Ms Higgins was unaware of unhappiness with the services.
Ms Higgins said Caranua could only address issues that were brought to the organisation’s attention. “If the complaints are not brought to us there is nothing we can do.” She asked Oireachtas members to bring the complaints to her attention. “We make mistakes. We get things wrong...and when that happens we say we’re sorry...We are an open organisation. It is very difficult to hear all this negativity,” she said.
She said Caranua would meet survivors face-to-face in the new premises into which Caranua would move once a legal issue was sorted out over the lease. “It is our intention that we will diversify the offering we have for survivors,”
“We do try earnestly to write to people in a way that conveys warmth.... in a way that people will understand and get the message....We are here to provide something additional. And I do think sometimes there are misunderstandings about what we can do.
She said it wasn’t Caranua’s role to seek more money from the religious to add to the fund. “It’s the role of the Minister,” said Ms Higgins.
Caranua boss: Many victims not treated properly
By Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
Irish Examiner Political Correspondent
Friday, April 14, 2017
The head of the State body overseeing compensation payments to religious abuse victims has admitted its initial approach to victims was “appalling”, despite his own CEO defending claims some people are “so damaged” they will never be happy with the help that is given.
Caranua chair David O’Callaghan made the admission as the group faced fresh criticism over a new €15,000 cap on repayments and has admitted counselling services it obtained from a Catholic organisation have already cost more than €90,000.
Speaking during an at times heated Dáil public accounts committee on how the 2002 redress scheme is working, Mr O’Callaghan said the reality is a large number of victims have “not been treated properly” by Caranua.
He said lengthy delays in having their compensation claims assessed were commonplace when the group was set up in 2014, but insisted increased staffing levels mean the “appalling” situation has now been resolved.
However, during the same meeting his CEO Mary Higgins appeared to contradict the claims, saying while she “regrets” recent media interviews in which she described victims as “damaged” any criticism was because some people want to “suit a certain narrative”.
Responding to questions from Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan and unaligned Independent TD Catherine Connolly, Ms Higgins initially said she had been “misquoted” in an Irish Times article and that the context had not been given.
However, when asked to explain near identical RTÉ Liveline comments, Ms Higgins apologised “if any pain was caused” by the “coverage”.
While Caranua controls a €110m fund to compensate abuse victims, it has been accused by a number of people applying for the supports of not always providing what they believe is needed.
The claim, rejected by Caranua, was raised again yesterday, with Ms Madigan, Ms Connolly and Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry pointing to changes in the amount of money the group has released since 2015.
Asked about the “abrupt” change in policy by Ms Madigan, Ms Higgins insisted compensation levels only reduced after a three month review of payments.
However, asked by Ms Connolly and Mr MacSharry about a €15,000 cap on compensation payments put in place during the same year, Mr O’Callaghan said this was because almost half of the €110m fund has already been paid out and that Caranua needs to limit funding to ensure all victims receive compensation.
Caranua came under further criticism during the PAC meeting due to the fact a counselling service which was meant to be free has already cost more than €90,000.
However, Ms Higgins said this is because the service is offered by a religious group which has already contributed its €10m requirement to the Caranua fund, meaning it can now charge for the support.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/caranua-boss-many-victims-not-treated-properly-447847.html
€210m provided so far by religious congregations for abuse compensation
Thursday, 13 Apr 2017
To date €210m has been provided by religious congregations towards the cost of compensating victims of institutional abuse, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee has been told.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has said that the final overall cost of investigating and responding to victims of institutional abuse is estimated to be €1.5bn, with the vast majority of costs relating to the Redress Scheme.
The committee heard evidence on a special report by Seamus McCarthy on the cost of the Abuse Inquiry and Redress schemes, which he published last December.
A senior official from the Department of Education said that when the contributions from the religious congregations provided for in the 2002 Indemnity Agreement are combined with the subsequent voluntary offers, the maximum total contribution is expected to be €321m, of which €210m has been received.
Seán Ó Foghlú said that since January 2016 a further €12.4m in cash contributions have been received under voluntary offers from religious congregations, which followed publication of the Ryan Report in 2009.
Mr Ó Foghlú said the Government's position was that the congregations could bring their contribution to 50% of the estimated costs.
However, he acknowledged the overall figure of €321m was €429m short of a 50% share, adding that the congregations had "never accepted" the 50% principle.
In addition, he said eight further property transfers have now been fully completed, four under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement and four under the 2009 voluntary offers.
He said a total of €112.9m, or 88% of the amount provided for in the 2002 agreement, has been received.
Chair of the committee Fianna Fáil's Seán Fleming expressed concern that the minutes of meetings between some of the congregations and the department were not readily available to the committee.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly sharply criticised the department's original estimates that the cost of compensating victims would be €250m.
CEO of Caranua Mary Higgins has said she accepts criticisms of the internal financial control of the organisation by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Caranua was set up in 2012 to manage funds contributed by the congregations to enhance the lives of the abuse survivors.
The organisation received a clear audit report, however Mr McCarthy pointed to "weakness in the board's controls in the granting of payments."
Ms Higgins said she accepted the recommendations made by the Comptroller and Auditor General and was in the process of implementing them.
She also apologised for any hurt caused to victims as a result of comments she made in a newspaper article in which she was quoted as saying "some clients will never be happy".
Under questioning from Fine Gael TD Josepha Madigan, she said she regretted any pain or offence caused by those comments.
Ms Higgins said a decision was made in 2015 to prioritise new applicants over repeat applicants.
She said there was a backlog of repeat applicants of around 300 however, some committee members raised concerns that some abuse survivors were being told their cases were closed.
The chair of the organisation David O'Callaghan acknowledged the service was "appalling" due to staff shortages at outset in 2014 and 2015.
However, he said the service that was being offered now was "totally different".
Under questioning from Sinn Féin deputy David Cullinane, the organisation's Ms Higgins said they were now getting a chance to enhance the service offered.
However, Mr Cullinane raised concerns that salary costs had risen, despite the numbers of applicants.
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2017/0413/867501-redress-scheme/
Sir, – Further to “Institutional abuse survivors accuse State redress body of lacking compassion” (March 20th), the comments by Mary Higgins, chief executive of Caranua, that the “narrative” of many survivors of intuitional abuse is that they will “never be happy” is a distortion of the truth and an attempt to blame survivors for Caranua’s failings.
Indeed, Ms Higgins will be aware of the documented instances of concerns regarding the scheme operated by Caranua, and some of these were reported in the appeals officer’s annual report for 2015, with hundreds, and possibly thousands, of applicants affected.
Earlier this month, the Government announced a review of Caranua, but limited this to eligibility to the scheme and not the operation of the scheme itself.
The scheme, set up for survivors with money donated from the religious congregations, has met with widespread criticism this week. This follows comments made in the Dáil on March 8th in the debate on Clare Daly’s private member’s Bill to make changes to the scheme.
Will the Government now act and fulfil its statutory obligation to supervise the operation of the scheme, given the allegations of its mismanagement? Will it, as previously promised, review Caranua’s operation of the scheme?
This latest effort of redress will fail if survivors’ concerns are ignored. A survivor-centred and survivor-led approach to redress is being applied in Northern Ireland. Survivors here were not consulted at all in terms of the Caranua scheme, nor the redress scheme which came before it in 2002.
Proper redress can only begin to take place when Caranua and the Government begins to demonstrate a genuine commitment to an open and fair engagement with survivors
It is not too late, given the funds available, and the number of survivors still alive and awaiting the dignity of making choices in regard to the money which is theirs. – Yours, etc,
FIONNA FOX,
Dublin 7. safe source via
PLEASE NOTE CARANUA - no longer open to the public - please contact Irish Gov. DEPT.. of EDUCATION for details.
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PLEASE NOTE registered CHY referred to as CBC or formerly referred
to as Aislinn Centre (AHIA - Association for Healing Institutional Abuse)
is no longer based at Jervis House, Jervis Street, Dublin 1
please contact HSE for further details etc.
Caranua fought to restrict money for survivors
Caranua took legal action so that it could restrict how much money survivors of institutional abuse could be allocated for housing and health needs.
Fifty people who were abused in religious institutions have been denied funding after Caranua took High Court proceedings against its own appeals officer.
The agency was set up in 2014 to divide a €110 million compensation fund from religious congregations between people who were abused in institutions as children to help with health, housing or educational needs.
It told survivors: “There is no limit on the number of services that you can apply for and we encourage you to apply for everything that is relevant to you.” In 2016 it imposed a €15,000 limit on survivors who were applying for assistance after it was reprimanded by the state spending watchdog for a lack of financial control. Mary Higgins, its chief executive, claimed that the new limit would not be imposed retrospectively on applicants who applied before June 2016.
At least 50 people who had applied to Caranua before that date had their applications refused when the state agency claimed that they had gone over the €15,000 limit. They all appealed against the decision to Geraldine Gleeson, the appeals officer appointed by the Department of Education to review refusals of funding by Caranua.
Ms Gleeson made a decision early last year that the limit should apply only to new applicants. Documents seen by The Times reveal that Caranua took High Court proceedings against her late last year after the decision.
In a letter to an applicant last week Ms Gleeson said that her office had been given legal advice that Caranua was likely to win the case because of a decision its board had taken which had “inexplicably” not been published when the new limit was imposed.
“Caranua instigated High Court proceedings challenging one such decision on appeal,” Ms Gleeson wrote. “In the context of defending that challenge, the legal advice received was that Caranua would be likely to succeed in court on the basis that the board of Caranua had decided that moneys received by applicants prior to the introduction of the criteria were to be taken into account in determining whether the new limit was breached.”
She said that if the court case was contested, this would be likely to win the case for Caranua despite the fact that the board had failed to clarify or publish anywhere that any payments received by an applicant before June 2016 could impact on future applications.
“While I consider this omission to be inexplicable, nonetheless, in light of the legal advice, I must now accept the board decision in this case was intended to include moneys paid to applicants before the introduction of the [new limit],” she said.
Fionna Fox, a solicitor representing all 50 applicants who were appealing against their refusals, said that at least one client was taking the case to the High Court because she believed that the appeals officer’s decision was “very flawed”.
A spokeswoman for Caranua said that it could not discuss any details about applications to the fund. The spokeswoman did not answer questions about why the agency had taken High Court action against its own appeals officer.
Caranua has been mired in controversy following a number of revelations about applications being delayed, survivors being treated poorly or ignored and claims that a significant amount of the fund was used for administrative costs.https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caranua-fought-to-restrict-money-for-survivors-wz0r2mmvc