Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter of particular and grave concern. It relates to several children, suffering from intellectual disabilities, who were the victims of physical and sexual abuse in institutions run by the Brothers of Charity in Galway in the 1970s, 1980s and later.

In 1999, the then Western Health Board was requested to put together a group to conduct an inquiry into allegations of the events that took place in these institutions. In April 1999, six people were appointed to the review group by the health board and asked to report. By August 2001, all members, apart from the chairperson, appointed had either departed or resigned. The chairperson subsequently departed the scene without any report being furnished or made available in January 2006.

After I kicked up a row in the House about this following my re-election in 2007, the HSE appointed Dr. Kevin McCoy to review the work done and, ultimately, a report was published of a limited nature in November 2007. The report was limited because Dr. McCoy was placed in an impossible position whereby he had to review documentation and notes of interviews put together by the first committee. In dealing with the totality of the allegations made about these institutions, the report was grossly inadequate. At a hearing held by the Joint Committee on Health and Children on 24 June 2008, Dr. McCoy accepted his terms of reference were limited, with the result that the job he could do was also limited. None of this is a critique of Dr. McCoy; he did the best he could in difficult circumstances.

I have raised this matter on a variety of occasions by way of parliamentary questions to get a report of some description published. A report was eventually published in November 2007. On the Adjournment debate on 13 December 2007, I dealt with my concerns about the adequacy of this report and the need for an inquiry into why it took eight years for the Western Health Board to publish any sort of a report. Then I expressed the view, which I still hold, that it was an absolute scandal and disgrace that people suffering from intellectual disabilities, who came forward to make complaints about abuse and were interviewed, were left for eight years without knowing any outcome. There we were in December 2007, eight years later, with a raft of recommendations for the HSE, most of which had yet to be implemented.

On the Adjournment on 13 December 2007, the Minister of State, Deputy Devins, accepted the delay that had occurred was not acceptable. He announced: "I have arranged to have an immediate inquiry carried out by an independent person into the causes of the delay in preparing this report. The person will be asked to report to me as quickly as possible." He then made various commitments with regard to recommendations made.

Subsequently, Mr. John Hynes, the former Secretary General of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the inquiry. It was to cover questions such as what went wrong, why did people resign, why did it take eight years to produce a report and was it adequate in addressing the issues raised. Mr. Hynes was to report by 31 July 2008, which was confirmed by a parliamentary question in April 2008. He failed to do so but from several parliamentary questions I learned he did report by 31 October 2008.

Since then I have been seeking to obtain a copy of his report. In the public interest, it should be published and made available to Members. We need to know what went wrong. The Western Health Board has already been the subject of a report on the Kelly Fitzgerald case 1996. At a time when a proper investigation was to be carried out into what was occurring in the Brothers of Charity institutions, it was the Western Health Board that was scandalously failing to provide the intervention and care needed for those children in Roscommon whose tragic plight was debated here last week. I sought this report under the Freedom of Information Act and have been told by the Department in reply, "While it would be in the public interest to have access to the report and show the decision-making process, I feel the public interest would be harmed with the premature release of the report." How can it be a premature release as we are now ten years on from when the Western Health Board was first requested to investigate the scandal? The reply continues, "Such a release would impair a future decision, could contaminate the decision-making process and would impair the integrity and viability of the decision-making process to a significant or substantial degree without countervailing benefit to the public."

I demand of the Minister, in the public interest, that there be transparency and accountability, and that this report be published. The victims of abuse should know why it took eight years for the Western Health Board to carry out its review — in effect, it took the Western Health Board five years and the HSE another two years. Why did these delays occur? We need the answers and to know the adequacy of the investigation originally conducted. The Minister should publish the report. This is a cover-up of the gross inadequacies within our health service and the particular failings of the former Western Health Board.

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