Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yes. I concur that several of us got an email in advance of the meeting. The Chairman read out the notice at the beginning of the meeting about not naming people, but that is difficult to do when people actually give us permission to name them. There is a balance to be struck.

Caranua is winding down. It appeared before us after the formal close-off date and is not receiving new applications. The fund was finite to begin with, but anything remaining was to go to, I believe, the children's hospital. It is not likely that there will be funds remaining. The Department of Education will take responsibility for Caranua's documents and so on once they are handed over. However, my understanding is that that legislation has not been published yet. Whatever funds remain will be used for salaries and so forth because of the time lag between Caranua's closing and the formal handing over, which is required to happen by way of legislation. We might write to the Minister for Education and ask for the timeline so that we might be satisfied about the issue.

A lesson should be learned in all of this about how the metric used to show satisfaction with the service provided by Caranua was one of complaint. That was wholly inappropriate, given the cohort of people involved. With the recent publication of the report into mother and baby homes and the discussion of a redress scheme, lessons must be learned about what metrics are employed in evaluating schemes from their users' point of view. This will have to be a consideration. We have all heard complaints about how Caranua operated since its establishment. It is important that Caranua be properly evaluated and that its evaluation not be based exclusively on complaints from people who have been conditioned throughout their lives not to complain. We must contact the Department of Education and find out where the legislation stands.