Sir, – Regarding the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill. I am a 44 year old, mother of two children, who was placed in an industrial school in Co Kerry where I experienced on-going horrendous abuse and I am writing to you to voice my concerns over the limiting terms of the first draft Residential Statutory Fund Bill 2012.
The children of survivors are excluded from accessing all of the services outlined in this draft Statutory Fund Bill. Please note that children of survivors were included in the old Education Finance Board which is shut since November 2011.
I am a second generation survivor and it is only through access to education that the cycle of poverty will be broken.
I want to provide my children with what I was denied – an education of choice. My right to education was denied. My father was a survivor of an industrial school, in the 1940s. Both my parents are illiterate.
My son is 17 and achieved 11 honours in his Junior Certificate this year and he is now worried that he will not be able to afford to go to college and worse still he wants to quit school so that he could help support his family. I am a legally separated mother of two, on a CE Scheme which terminates in November 2012 and this will reduce my income to my social welfare payment.
My means are limited and providing my children with access to third level education in the coming years will be impossible as according to the above draft Bill they are excluded from applying to this fund.
My children’s education is the passport to ensuring that this cycle of deprivation and social welfare dependency does not repeat. – Yours, etc,