Ken Foxe. Sunday Tribune 24 January 2009
A BOARD set up to adjudicate on claims by victims of abuse in industrial schools and other institutions has spent more than €900,000 on travel, hotel bills, taxi fares and courier costs.
The average award from the Residential Institutions Redress Board is €63.210 with some former residents getting just a few thousand euros in damages.
By the time all 13,743 cases are dealt with by the board, it is expected the final bill to the taxpayer will come to €1.1bn.
According to a breakdown of costs from the Redress Board Board, more than €622.000 has been spent of “travel and subsistence” since its inception.
Further hotel room hire costs of €131,692 have also been recorded, while taxi and courier services have set the taxpayer back €187,568.
Fees for board members have cost a massive €8.59m according to accounts from the Redress Board, whilst administrative salaries have come to €8.63m.
The cost of an advertising campaign to ensure all victims came forward was €899.367, and even postage ended up costing more than €500.000.
Vending machine and water supplies at the Redress Board headquarters cost €67,538, according to the details released by the Department of Education.
“The €900.000 spend is a disgrace given the paltry sums paid to people who were abused,” said Paddy Doyle, a survivor of one of the institutions.
“People would do well to bear in mind that the average payment made by the Redress Board to survivors no stands at around €67.000. Much of that €900.000 could have been used to ensure real redress rather than pocket money.
“Bertie Ahern said payments made by the Redress Board would be in line would be in line with those people who took ‘abuse cases’ to the court…the payments made to people who have gone to the civil courts is about €350.000.”
The department said it expected that the final bill would now exceed the 1bn originally estimated.
“The total paid in Redress Board awards from inception to the end of November is €800,749,870. The total third-party legal costs associated with these awards, and including the costs for those applicants who took High Court actions, is €148,506,089,” the department said in a statement.
“At this point, overall anticipated expenditure associated with the Redress Board is expected to be up to €1.1bn. This estimate is tentative given that the board is still in the process of making awards and the level of awards in these remain cases may vary substantially.”
The average claim hovers around €62,000; just 29 people have been awarded more than €200,000, and the maximum payment to one individual was €300,000.
More than a third of people who were compensated for their time in industrial schools and other institutions were given less than €50,000.
A total of 814 applications were refused or withdrawn, or resulted in no award where the claimants’ stories appeared not to stack up or did not relate to the right institutions.
1,000.00 EUR = £877.599 Pounds sterling.
1,000.00 EUR = $1,413.90 USD
I have been oferred 60,000 euros but they want to put it into a trust fund and pay me monthly of about 200 euros. I am not happy about the peanuts they are going to give after all I went through but worse they want to put it into a trust like I am a child or something.
Has this happened to anybody else? Can you apeal against this and ask for full payment? Please let me know what chancer I stand to get this resolved.
Thanks.
Jean.
I never felt I got redress I received a paltry sum, I felt I was not listened to what I felt, when I think of the big pensions that the politicians are now receiving, it makes me want to vomit, I realise the weaker you are the less important you are. my life was destroyed and no one can give that back to me but at least I could have had a more comfortable life for my family, and get a few items to make life a little more bearable, I cannot say anymore because I am getting too upset.
WELL CAN ANY ONE TELL ME WHY DID ALL MONIES FOR FLIGHTS AND ACCOMADITION GOT TAKEN OUT OF THE SO CALLED “AWARD” AS THAY CALLED IT,
this government has decided it is time for them to move on from our stories, they feel they have dealt with us in full and thats that.
they actually believe they have done well by us.
they have decided there is nothing else they can do.
they have decided it cost enough of taxpayers money.
there is more important issues to debate on in the Oireachtas that needs more time as it is more important, and that is now they have got some money from the religious they can now put in for their pensions and boy they are fighting tooth and nail to get their highly paid pensions.
the trouble here is in this country that was once FULL of great heros, we have no one standing up against the insults and greed of the government.
they say the country is in a state yet they steal from the abused to fill their own pockets.
do they NEED the money?
lets not forget here that this is NOT their money it is the TAXPAYERS money and some of these greedy officials are the highest paid in europe.
now i say to the government lets see you claim that pension back on behalf of the taxpayer, give it back it is taxpayers money. no? i did not think so.mmm.
then give us our money back
Barry, I wouldn’t trust anyone not a single person in Dublin with any involvement of any Trust Fund ,We Survivors have been used and ripped off enough ,those who claim funding for so called services saying they have so many names on their lists to get that funding, Well Those Lists Must be open to inspection, my Name for one shouldn’t be on anyone’s list as I don’t use any services at all. All of us Survivors must be compensated properly so we could Buy our own homes and give us a little light receive in our daily lives,and have something to pass to our families when we die , I don’t agree at all if it is true Mrs Buckley wants to set up a bed and breakfast for survivors who live abroad I wonder if she will apply for funding????and any place like that would be counter productive apart from reminding us of the Terrible past in Child Prisons not to mention all the bickering that has gone on I would prefer to stay in a tent .,As Irish Ex Child prisoners are we supposed to except Peanuts thrown at us and threatened into silence , We made the Catholic Church extremely Wealthy with our Free slave labour ,Indeed RATHDRUM was bought around 1957 with the money raised from the Rosary Bead Factory,The Church Government grew a Huge Property Portfolio for themselves on the suffering of us Children, So YES I want and deserve Proper Compensation (We all do )into our own Bank account ,and I am sure we would know exactly what to do with it ,and don’t need it put into some Corupt Trust fund, where none of us would benefit from it except The Lawyers again and those proposing this ,, I have two cousins who work in banks one a bank Manager he would be of help 100 per cent ,who said we were Gold Diggers ,that is a very stupid statement ,Were Not the Religious using Irish Children as FREE SLAVE LABOUR , Taken Land from families,Gold Diggers.Just look around the Vatican at all the Gold. Look at The Religious orders huge Property Porfolio in Ireland and they were were given Funding from the government for us ,most of our parent or parents were chased for money by the Religious as well and collected by the Garda for them while they Starved and abused us and worked us hard ,They did NOT spend that money on us children .Its not as though we are asking for something that does not belong to us in the first place. Tom Ward and Mary, Justice for Survivors.
It makes me sick to think of those fat cats getting fatter on the suffering of all us survivors. I was bullied into accepting a paltry sum along with my sisters who were all branded liars and gold diggers. I wanted to fight on and go to court but had the fear of God put into me. I feel so much anger towards these people and I want to fight them for myself and my sisters and my poor dead brother.
The govt. are watching us like hawks right now. Some of our phones are even tapped. Poor dears. Must be a dearth of work for them. We cannot afford to back down now or ever in the future as this affects your children’s future and grandchildren even. Fight, fight, fight, accept nothing at face value. Question everything they say. Have your rebuttals ready so get working on the Indemnity Deal and Derek the Constitution covering those of another religious persuasion has been broken in your case (check out section 40). Funding was pulled this year for Church of Ireland schools but there appears to be little activity from their hierarchy … over to you …
This has been going on everywhere around the globe. There is no real redress structure.
The worst of it is, while all these so called ‘experts’ or ‘professionals’ are profiteering, we the victims/survivors are labeled as ‘gold diggers’ when nothing could be farther from the truth. What little money (if any victims/survivors do get) is used on recovery programs that fail them because it is designed by the same ‘systems’ which created the problem in the first place. So the problem just keeps on recycling while the victims/survivors are just re-exploited all over again.
The taxpayer’s money being used to fund the misdeeds of persons entrusted with care and control of these funds belays the objective of government accountability and misleads the public to believe the problem of child abuse at the hands of institutions is being dealt with.
This misuse of tax payers money reflects poorly on our systems of governance, and calls urgently for the commitment of citizens who place their faith in justice.
I hope Ireland will heed the lessons from this misuse of taxpayers money here and work harder to restore the public’s trust on addressing this issue. Most importantly, the centuries of harm they have inflicted on generations of children
For information:
Redress Board-
EXPENDITURE DATA FOR THE YEAR 2007
CATEGORY AMOUNT €
ADVERTISING €1,643.18
STENOGRAPHY SERVICES €148,058.14
PHONES (SERVICE) €34,861.45
PHONES (EQUIPMENT) €0.00
POSTAGE – COSTS €88,330.00
POSTAGE – RENTAL & SERVICES €2,380.97
COMPUTER HARDWARE/SOFTWARE €30,678.32
COMPUTER SUPPORT SERVICES €48,813.03
PHOTOCOPYING €10,569.98
OFFICE MACHINERY €605.00
HEAT, POWER & LIGHT €20,601.98
CONTRACT CLEANING €24,522.97
OFFICE SUPPLIES €41,659.92
PRINTING €1,337.05
FURNITURE & FITTINGS €8,317.59
TRAVEL & SUBSISTENCE €111,959.85
TAXI/COURIER SERVICE €34,449.82
VENDING MACHINE & WATER
SUPPLIES €11,323.21
MAINTENANCE €3,547.74
HOTEL ROOM HIRE
/ACCOMODATION €24,400.11
MEDICAL FEES* €148,200.00
MEDICAL PAYMENTS** €1,089,608.35
LEGAL FEES *** €2,193,777.89
ADVICE AS TO FINANCIAL
MANAGEMENT OF THE AWARD
€124,422.00
ADMINISTRATIVE
SALARIES €1,359,904.93
BOARD MEMBERS FEES €1,627,340.81
TRAINING €16,594.79
PUBLICATIONS €0.00
SECURITY €92,251.59
BOARD CATERING €37,203.74
AGENCY STAFF €219,563.68
MISCELLANEOUS €79,078.70
TOTAL €7,636,006.79
I would think there are a number of items that should be questioned ..if not many l!!!
Martin Maguire
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
Herein is our Mission Statement for all former residents of Industrial Schools, Reformatories, Prisons and our supporters toward reflective compensation.
In it carries our Means to an End
PART ONE
1 To seek compensation for wrongful imprisonment, illegal detainment, personal, emotional, sexual and psychological abuse
2 To seek all current monies in the form of trust funds or other, past or present, towards reflective compensation to be liquidized and deposited in one main account
3 To seek all Education, Health, Housing and other supports to be a constitutional right not an expectation and outside of compensatory offers
4 To seek the Indemnity Deal to be deemed unconstitutional, unjust and unlawful
5 To have all reflective compensation offers to be decided by the former residents of institutional abuse, or their nominees.
6 Compensation to be resolved to residents’ satisfaction by their elected nominees or an independent body. Involvement by Government to be kept to a minimum with no involvement of the Religious
PART TWO
I To have a mandate for representation by people of Industrial/Reformatories and their supporters
2 Nominees to consist of five people in the terms of a standing committee
3 Each nominee to have at least ten signatures to be nominated
4 The term limit for representatives is three years before re-election
PART THREE
1 Fire and Ice to be recognised as a charitable organisation
2 To encourage the flow of contributions to provide a network of supports that includes the following:
a a bank account, with all activity available on website
b website under the name Fire And Ice where one can air their views
c monies to be used for legal purposes and maintenance of website etc.
We intend to hold a march at a date to be announced – most likely during the month of March. This will be the first step of our campaign. It is proposed that the march will take place from the Pro-Cathedral to Dail Eireann – the seat of our Government.
Our Mission Statement will also be enacted on the day. Your attendance would be greatly appreciated. Your part, however small, is vital to the lifeblood of this campaign. If you intend to march with us, please do let me know. My email address is given. “There’s strength in numbers”
Barry Clifford email: bgclifford@iol.ie
Ph: 0877511113