Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

The Minister referred to 15,000 potential beneficiaries. Will he comment on whether the money from the fund will be apportioned equally among these people? Senator Norris stated that 15,000 is a huge figure and Senator Power indicated that the number of those considered ineligible is a small, but significant, proportion of this. The past 20 years have been marked by those who have been abused narrating their stories. I was shocked by something I learned at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection yesterday, namely, that some 40,000 of those who are teaching in schools are not Garda vetted. All new entrants to teaching are vetted by the Garda but long-standing members of the profession have not yet been vetted.

There is a need to ensure that there will be no recurrence of the type of abuse to which the legislation relates. I accept that there is an issue of resources.