Abuse survivors unhappy at fund’s operation

[Rob Northall]

Monday, April 11, 2016

By Conall Ó Fátharta Irish Examiner Reporter

Almost two complaints a week were made against Caranua last year by survivors of institutional child abuse.

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Caranua was established by the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012 to oversee the use of the cash contributions of up to €110m, pledged by the religious congregations, to support the needs of survivors of institutional child abuse.

The fund is to provide survivors with their health, educational and housing needs.

Figures released under Freedom of Information show that, between April 2015 and February of this year, 75 formal complaints were made by survivors about the service offered by Caranua — almost two every week. The vast majority relate to “disrespectful/poor treatment”. However, others include “failure to protect confidentiality”, “discriminatory treatment” and “failure to meet timeline”.

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Tom Cronin of Irish Survivors of Institutional Abuse International said he believed the figures to be “the tip of the iceberg”.

“ A lot of survivors are vulnerable and timid and don’t bother to complain. If Caranua is working, then why are so many survivors unhappy with it? We are just ignored. It’s a situation where we have to beg for our own money — money that we are entitled to. It’s disgraceful what they are doing,” he said.

Mr Cronin said the system was “completely ad hoc” and that while surivivors could get money for certain home renovations, finance for essential white goods like fridges, washing machines, and cookers was denied.

He also queried Caranua’s refusal to release money to survivors who wanted finance to help pay for their own burials.

“Many survivors are worse off now than they were when they received the redress awards. In their twilight years, survivors are being denied what was awarded to them by bureacracy,” he said.

Mr Cronin said he believed the State was hoping survivors would die off so the fund could be closed and re-directed into other areas.

A spokesperson for Caranua denied the level of complaints was high and said that it was always working to make the application process more survivor centred.

“Ideally, we would have no complaints. However, of the over 5,180 part one applications we have received up to February, that figure [75 complaints] represents about 1.5%.

“Obviously, we want that figure down to 0%. In general, we are always trying to iron out our processess to make them as person centred as possible. We talk to a lot of survivors and groups and we are always trying to adapt to best suit the needs of the people we are supporting,” she said.

The spokesperson acknowledged that goods and money for burial was not permitted under the current guidelines but said that, due to survivors’ concerns on this issue, it was “currently under review”.

She also denied that there was any intention to close the fund before all the money has been spent.

“We don’t intend to have any money left over as we can see that the need is there for the money to be spent in the survivor population and that is our intention. As of today, we have spent around €45m in different supports out of the €110m so we are going through it rapidly,” she said.

Caranua will hold an information meeting in Cork on April 23 and Galway on May 14, and is encouraging as many potential applicants as possible to attend.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

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[micheal]

@ katleen above you have run foul of the so called customer charter sanctions, which is not supposed to be in operation anymore, i know there are one or two people inside caranua that are horrified by these kind of actions, their only option being to leave. Just think about how deluded mary higgins is, she spent a nice chunk of our money putting together this customer charter which really was just a vehicle for various sanctions against us and published it on site, well plenty of us pushed back and now its not on site, she actually tought this would be acceptable.

[micheal]

Keep complaining people some are getting through, all it takes is one person on the inside to stand up for us and remove the racist, degrading, discrimintory, insulting snake that is mary higgins, she is a victim hater, she has shown this through her actions.

[Kathleen O'Malley.]

Hi Michael.

This woman is a shame to her Profession whatever that is.????.

She has acted totallt inappropiately towards me and I know of others who are still BRAIN WASHES and unable to stand up for themselves. Apparently the Buck stops with her so any complaints go no further.  I am interested in knowing what her qualifications are if any? Clearly she has no skill in dealing with Human Beings.  Perhaps she is related to the Pope or some rev. Mother somewhere and got the job through that.  Nothing to write

I am hoping to speak to a Journalist tomorrow so will keep you posted .  Come on all you Survivors please let us know how you have been treated by this shameful Organisation who are BELITTLING, CONDESENDING,ARROGENT, DISMISSIVE AND CONTROLLING TO SAY THE LEAST. Its as though they are handing out Charity when they would not have a job were sadly had we not been ABUSED. Unless we stand up and FIGHT we will allow the Establishment once again to treat us as we were as children.  Get rid of this woman I would do a much better job than she as would we all.

Kathleen Warrin.nee O'Malley. Childhood Interrupted"

[Elizabeth Dormer]

Hello Rob and Everybody,

Hope everybody is doing well out there.

Apologies for not being on here for quite some time. I just couldn't cope with what Caranua are doing and I was trying to make an application (that has been refused)  for replacement teeth.

I became so run down, I informed Caranua that my health was making me ill and that I felt suicidal. I emailed Mary Higgins and basically accused her of 'abusing vulnerable people'.  I got a very patronising response from her.

I turned to Whispering Hope for help, the lady on the phone told me they were only really there to provide a service to people in that particular area. 

Sibsequently, in January, I took an overdose but hey, I'm fine and coming back round to reality again. I have to say, I've lost touch with all events at the moment but I'm sure I'll soon catch up.

Caranua needs totally auditing and then accurate figures released and made public. Not just us, anybody who wishes to see the figures.

Caranua just creates bitterness for me......the more they treat me like begging scum, the more I try and work out who I hate. Them? The Church? The Pope? Nuns? Religion?   ALL of it I think......I don't know, I just hate the bloody lot of them.

This is something that I still want to shout about from the roof tops and get somebody to listen. A peaceful (but noted by the media) protest that gathers attention. Surely in the UK somebody has to listen??

Anybody up for a friendly, peaceful protest in London? I will do it but alas not on my own and organised with authorities informed.

Thanks for reading,

Lizzie x x

[micheal]

@ Kathleen the whole thing is rotten we just have to stay fighting 

@ Lizzie im here in ireland, sorry to hear about your troubles, some day higgins will have to answer for what she is doing, i have it in writing that she lied to my appeals officer about the special needs function of the legislation which is what my appeal was based on, she told him that this would only be used in extreme medical cases such as cancer etc, so my appeal was denied, now a few months later she told the minister and i quote

"Caranua has advised that in light of the fact that this area deals with exceptional circumstances it is not appropriate to put in place strict criteria to define these since it would remove the element of discretion that this provision is designed to provide for."

Now surely it is a criminal offense to mislead some one carrying out a legal process, 

[Barbie]

MS. HIGGINS, WE ARE SURVIVORS OF ABUSE BY THE RELIGIOUS IN THIS COUNTRY, THIS FUND WAS SET UP TO HELP SURVIVORS. AS A SURVIVOR MYSELF WE NOW NEED YOU TO APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTE TO ANSWER WHERE ALL OUR MONEY HAS GONE AND ALL OF A SUDDEN AN EXTRA OF APPROX 2500 APPLICATION WERE HANDED IN TO CARANUA. I KNOW OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN REFUSED ANY HELP BY YOU AND YET I KNOW OF OTHER PEOPLE THAT JUST WROTE A LETTER WITHOUT HAVING TO FILL OUT YOUR BOOK OF APPLICATION FORMS AND THEY RECEIVED CHEQUES IN THE MAIL. THERE IS SOMTHING NOT RIGHT ABOUT THIS, AND I KNOW ANOTHER PERSON THAT WAS SPOKEN TO LIKE A DOG BY ON OF YOUR SO CALLED STAFF. WHILE THERE IS AN ELECTION IN PROCESS I AM CALLING ON THE POLITICIANS TO HAVE YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE THAT OWN THIS MONEY. ANGRED SURVIVOR BARBARA

[micheal]

Well said Barbara, some have no issue, perhaps as they own there own home and as most of the fund is spent on housing it discriminates against those of us who wouldnt be lucky enough to be in that position, maybe they want to turn us against each other which wont happen, fairplay to anyone who has got what they need from caranua, but we have to fight our own corner because there must be something going on behind it all because a lot of us are treated so bad.

[Elizabeth Nicholas]

Barbara K said:

MS. HIGGINS, WE ARE SURVIVORS OF ABUSE BY THE RELIGIOUS IN THIS COUNTRY, THIS FUND WAS SET UP TO HELP SURVIVORS. AS A SURVIVOR MYSELF WE NOW NEED YOU TO APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTE TO ANSWER WHERE ALL OUR MONEY HAS GONE AND ALL OF A SUDDEN AN EXTRA OF APPROX 2500 APPLICATION WERE HANDED IN TO CARANUA. I KNOW OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN REFUSED ANY HELP BY YOU AND YET I KNOW OF OTHER PEOPLE THAT JUST WROTE A LETTER WITHOUT HAVING TO FILL OUT YOUR BOOK OF APPLICATION FORMS AND THEY RECEIVED CHEQUES IN THE MAIL. THERE IS SOMTHING NOT RIGHT ABOUT THIS, AND I KNOW ANOTHER PERSON THAT WAS SPOKEN TO LIKE A DOG BY ON OF YOUR SO CALLED STAFF. WHILE THERE IS AN ELECTION IN PROCESS I AM CALLING ON THE POLITICIANS TO HAVE YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE THAT OWN THIS MONEY. ANGRED SURVIVOR BARBARA

[Elizabeth Nicholas]

When I  applied for help from these people, this woman Ger  told me that I probably would not get I was applying for   how would she know that has she been looking into my files and if so what right does she have to do this. 

Elizabeth Nicholas said:

Barbara K said:

MS. HIGGINS, WE ARE SURVIVORS OF ABUSE BY THE RELIGIOUS IN THIS COUNTRY, THIS FUND WAS SET UP TO HELP SURVIVORS. AS A SURVIVOR MYSELF WE NOW NEED YOU TO APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTE TO ANSWER WHERE ALL OUR MONEY HAS GONE AND ALL OF A SUDDEN AN EXTRA OF APPROX 2500 APPLICATION WERE HANDED IN TO CARANUA. I KNOW OF PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN REFUSED ANY HELP BY YOU AND YET I KNOW OF OTHER PEOPLE THAT JUST WROTE A LETTER WITHOUT HAVING TO FILL OUT YOUR BOOK OF APPLICATION FORMS AND THEY RECEIVED CHEQUES IN THE MAIL. THERE IS SOMTHING NOT RIGHT ABOUT THIS, AND I KNOW ANOTHER PERSON THAT WAS SPOKEN TO LIKE A DOG BY ON OF YOUR SO CALLED STAFF. WHILE THERE IS AN ELECTION IN PROCESS I AM CALLING ON THE POLITICIANS TO HAVE YOU ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE THAT OWN THIS MONEY. ANGRED SURVIVOR BARBARA

[Kathleen O'Malley.]

The above article claims that two formal  complaints were made every week, why is that acceptable one complaint is to many and jobs should have been on the line for misconduct yet I a survivor has  a reprenmand by Mary Higgins.  I agree her resignation should be called for, her credability in running Caranua is a sham.  The letter I received from her was not the composition of an intelligent or educated person.  There was continued repatition.    I am presuming she is in H.R. to have this position I have two friends who are in H.R. one is with Apple and the other Free Lance so I do question her ability to perform efficiently.   Mary Higgins you must first give respect to receive it and I certainly do not give you such.

I have achieved in my life and no thanks to the religious I sat on the bench for filteen years and to be treated in this manner by this woman , well frankly it says all there is to know about her and I will not waste any more time on the subject.

Kathleen warrin nee O'Malley. J.P. author. " Childhod Interrupted"

micheal said:

@ katleen above you have run foul of the so called customer charter sanctions, which is not supposed to be in operation anymore, i know there are one or two people inside caranua that are horrified by these kind of actions, their only option being to leave. Just think about how deluded mary higgins is, she spent a nice chunk of our money putting together this customer charter which really was just a vehicle for various sanctions against us and published it on site, well plenty of us pushed back and now its not on site, she actually tought this would be acceptable.

[Maureen sullivan]

You know what's is important here is that survivors stick togeather stand united and we will go a long way ,
Regards Maureen Sullivan

[Kathleen O'Malley.]

Maureen.  this is one area I believe Survivors or probably Irish Nationals are hesitant about for fear of dipping their toes in  hot water. After all what happened to us as children if we so much as uttered a suggestion "beaten into submission" Old Habits die Hard" So yes let us be as one.

Kathleen.

Maureen sullivan said:

You know what's is important here is that survivors stick togeather stand united and we will go a long way ,
Regards Maureen Sullivan