Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

- accepts the conclusions of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and in particular the failure of the State and the religious congregations running the institutions to protect the children who were placed in these institutions from abuse;

- acknowledges the pain and suffering endured by the former residents of institutions and that the commission's report vindicates their claims of abuse and that crimes were committed by members of the religious congregations and others against children placed in care;

- expresses its revulsion at the extent, severity and nature of the abuse suffered by children in residential institutions;

- restates the sincere apology of the House to the victims of childhood abuse for the failure to intervene, to detect their pain and come to their rescue;

- notes that the Minister for Children will be submitting a plan for the implementation of the recommendations of the commission's report to the Government for its approval by the end of July;

- restates the acceptance by the House of all of the recommendations contained in the commission's report and its support for their full implementation;

- declares its resolve to cherish all of the children of the nation equally;

- acknowledges that the State has an obligation to ensure that children and young people in the care of the State receive the highest possible quality of care and to provide services to protect them, as far as possible, from all forms of harm;

- acknowledges that everything possible must be done to ensure the grievous mistakes of the past are not repeated in the future and underlines the importance of the Government's commitment to fully implement the recommendations of the commission's report including, in particular, to ensure the uniform application throughout the State of the 'Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children' of 1999;

- notes that the Taoiseach has met with representatives of the former residents of the institutions and the commitment to further engagement with them;

- notes that the Taoiseach has met with representatives of the congregations at which their attention was drawn to the motion passed by Dáil Éireann on 28 May;

- notes that the Taoiseach called on the congregations to make further substantial contributions by way of reparation;

- considers that the assessment of proposals for such a contribution must have regard to the needs of the former residents as well as the costs of over €1 billion being incurred by the State on redress;

- notes that the congregations agreed in their meeting with the Taoiseach to make full and transparent disclosure of their resources;

- notes that both in the meetings with former residents and the congregations support was expressed for the proposal that the use of a further substantial contribution from the congregations should include a form of independent trust to be set up by the State which would be available to support the needs of survivors for general education and welfare purposes;

- supports the request of the former residents for representation on the proposed trust;

- notes that, while the committal of children to industrial schools did not involve a criminal conviction and that no criminal records arise from that committal, the Government will give further consideration to ways of meeting the concerns of victims in this regard;

- notes that the Assistant Garda Commissioner has been tasked with examining the totality of the commission's report and that criminal investigations are continuing in respect of a significant number of people;

- notes the commitment of the religious congregations and orders to fully co-operate with the Garda in any criminal investigation being conducted;

- notes that the Government is considering the request of the former residents of institutions, made at their meeting with the Taoiseach, to re-examine the terms of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 in respect of the confidentiality attached to awards and the application period; and

- notes the desirability that, in so far as possible, all of the documentation received by and in the possession of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse is preserved for posterity and not destroyed.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was established in 2000 and published its report on 20 May last. That report is the subject of our debate here today and tomorrow, and surely is one of the most important reports, and almost certainly the gravest, ever published in the history of the State. It contains a shattering litany of abuse of children in care in this country over many decades. In doing so it presents a searing indictment of the people who perpetrated that abuse, of the religious congregations who ran the institutions in which it took place, and of the organs of the State which failed in their duty to care for the children involved.

It is surely right and a vindication of the initiative of my predecessor, Deputy Bertie Ahern, that the first recommendation of the report is that a memorial be erected to the victims and that it be inscribed with the words of apology that he used on 11 May 1999. I repeated that apology directly to the representatives of survivors' organisations when, with colleague Ministers, I met them last week. It is fitting that, in the light of the appalling events catalogued in the commission's report, I put it on the record of the House now also. Accordingly, I say again:

On behalf of the State and of all citizens of the State, the Government wishes to make a sincere and long overdue apology to the victims of childhood abuse for our collective failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue.

As the current Executive of the State, the Government and I make this apology having accepted the recommendation of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse that we admit that the abuse of children, and the suffering they endured, occurred because of failures of systems and policy, of management and administration and of senior personnel who were concerned with industrial and reformatory schools. We also do so because we are deeply conscious that while the events inquired into by the commission occurred, for the most part, many years ago, their consequences continue and live on in the burdens that the victims carry day by day. I want to pay tribute, as the report does, to the dignity, courage and fortitude of witnesses who came forward to the commission to recall events that happened those years ago. We should also remember those former residents who are no longer with us.

The commission has done the former residents and the State a very valuable service by producing this report. The evidence presented in it makes clear that it was right to establish a system of redress which did not require victims to rely on the limitations of a compensation system based on litigation through the courts. I am aware that some people have had criticisms to make about the manner in which the redress board dealt with issues. However, I believe that it was right to have an approach which enabled survivors to be compensated without having to go through the courts and with a very different approach to proof and evidence.

Everyone would, I think, accept that this report has radically changed the public perception of what went on in the institutions. It has vindicated once and for all what was said over the years by former residents and by some others on their behalf. It is no longer possible to deny or to doubt. The commission has spoken, the case is closed.

I want, therefore, to thank Mr. Justice Ryan and his predecessor, Ms Justice Laffoy, and all the members of the commission and their staff over the years for their work on this report, which sets out in a clear and measured way a comprehensive account of the shocking abuse of children that went on over many years in this State.

The report makes grim reading. The catalogue of horror and terror that was visited over many years on children in the care of religious congregations, placed there by the State, is appalling beyond belief. It is made even more appalling, if that is possible, by the fact that those who perpetrated the abuse had promised to uphold and practise the gospel of love and belonged to congregations founded to serve the very noblest ideals. It is worsened, too, by the repeated failure of the State, which placed the children in these institutions, to inspect or regulate the conditions in which they were held or the treatment to which they were subjected. The congregations should have loved them and the State should have cared about them. Neither did.

The report contains such horrific stories that it is difficult to know where to begin in talking about it. It provides detailed accounts of the regime and the suffering in seven schools run by the Christian Brothers, one by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, one by the Department of Education itself, two by the Rosminian Order, one by the Presentation Brothers and one by the Brothers of Charity. It also describes eight schools run by nuns, mostly by the Sisters of Mercy but including two run by the Sisters of Charity, and gives short reviews of documentary evidence about two schools providing residential care to deaf girls, though in their case most allegations of abuse referred to the harshness with which a particular mode of learning was imposed and in general the standard of care in those two schools was good.

The report contains the report of the commission's confidential committee, which heard evidence from over a thousand men and women who reported being abused as children in Irish institutions. It devotes a whole volume to the role of the Department of Education, examining the extent to which the Department ensured, or failed to ensure, that its rules and regulations were upheld by the institutions and that the basic standards set for the children taken into the care of the State were being met.

The conclusions of the report are stark. The commission found that physical and emotional abuse and neglect were endemic features of the institutions. Sexual abuse occurred in many of them, primarily in boys' institutions. Schools were run in a severe, regimented manner that imposed unreasonable and oppressive discipline on children and even on staff. Inspections were not random or unannounced and, as a result, the inspector did not get an accurate picture of conditions in the schools. The inspector rarely spoke to the children in the institutions.

As regards physical abuse, the report concludes that rules governing the use of corporal punishment were disregarded with the knowledge of the Department of Education. A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all of those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from.

As regards sexual abuse, the report makes the truly appalling finding that sexual abuse was endemic in boys' institutions. The situation in girls' institutions was different; although girls were subjected to predatory sexual abuse by male employees or visitors or in outside placements, it was not systemic in girls' schools.

Perpetrators of abuse were able to operate undetected for long periods at the core of institutions. Cases of sexual abuse were managed with a view to minimising the risk of public disclosure and consequent damage to the institution and the congregation. When lay people were discovered to have sexually abused, they were generally reported to the Garda. When a member of a congregation was found to be abusing, it was dealt with internally and not reported to the Garda. The report finds that when confronted with evidence of such abuse, the response was to transfer the offender to another location where, in many instances, he was free to abuse again. The relevant religious authorities knew that sexual abuse was a persistent problem in male religious organisations throughout the relevant period. However, the report finds that some congregations remained defensive and disbelieving of much of the evidence heard by the investigation committee about sexual abuse in institutions, even where men had been convicted in court.

Sexual abuse of girls was generally taken seriously by the sisters in charge and lay staff were dismissed when their activities were discovered. However, the attitude of nuns made it difficult for them to deal with such cases candidly and openly and victims of sexual assault felt shame and fear of reporting sexual abuse.

The report also makes bleak findings about neglect and the education provided in the schools. Children were frequently hungry, accommodation was cold, Spartan and bleak, sanitary provision was primitive in most boys' schools and general hygiene facilities were poor. Academic education was not seen as a priority for industrial school children and the industrial training afforded by all schools was of a nature that served the needs of the institution rather than those of the child.

There was a disturbing level of emotional abuse by religious and lay staff in institutions. Witnessing abuse of co-residents, seeing other children being beaten, seeing the humiliation of others and being forced to participate in beatings had a powerful and distressing impact, while separating siblings and restrictions on family contact were profoundly damaging for family relationships. Complaints by parents and others made to the Department of Education were not properly investigated. The Department sought instead to protect the religious congregations and schools.

I cannot in the time available describe in detail the stories of physical, sexual and emotional abuse the report contains and it would not be right to choose particular incidents or examples. Each story involves a child. I cannot pick out one child above another or elevate the sufferings of one above those of another. No mother or father, no grandparent or brother or sister, no human being with a shred of feeling could read this report without constant and intense loathing and revulsion.

One paragraph may stand as a haunting summary of the evils that were done and the opportunities that were lost. That paragraph recalls that many witnesses who complained of abuse nevertheless expressed some positive memories. Small gestures of kindness were vividly recalled. A word of consideration or encouragement or an act of sympathy or understanding had a profound effect. Adults aged in their 60s and 70s recalled seemingly insignificant events that had remained with them all their lives. Alas, often the act of kindness recalled in such a positive light arose from the simple fact that the staff member had not been given a beating when one was expected.

The report concludes that more kindness and humanity would have gone far to make up for poor standards of care. All I would add is how different now would be the lives of those who spent time in those institutions if acts of kindness and humanity, rather than of horror and abuse, had been their daily experience and how different, too, would be the reputations of the religious congregations and State.

The report presents all of us with a portrait of Irish society which is deeply unsettling. How was it that so many children were committed to institutions where not only were they removed from care of their family but they were subjected to regimes of incarceration which were cold, impersonal and degrading when they were not violent, oppressive and abusive? How did the State, in whose name and through whose courts, police and laws children were consigned to institutions which were funded, regulated and inspected by the State, preside over such conditions for so many decades? How could religious communities, founded on the highest ideals of service and compassion for the poor, so completely turn their claimed vocation on its head and inflict such suffering and neglect almost as a matter of policy? It is a tribute to Mr. Justice Ryan and the members of the commission that their report brings together in a most persuasive fashion extensive material that helps us to begin to understand how and why this came about, as well as documenting with great care the reality of the sufferings endured by generations of children, neglected and abused in the so-called care of the State.

The historical survey contained in the report demonstrates how the industrial school system came to form part of the apparatus of social control which, together with the effects of sustained emigration, came to be a primary response to the endemic problems of under-development, under-employment and poverty. As the report notes, against the background of extreme poverty, some saw the schools as no worse than anything else and as offering children at least adequate food, clothing and housing.

Children's allowances were introduced only in 1944 and only in respect of the third child and subsequent children. The report notes that the decline in numbers committed to the schools coincided with that development. It also notes that the Adoption Act passed in 1952 and the general improvement in the economic situation from the late 1950s, accelerating in the 1960s, brought about a significant reduction in the numbers committed to schools. In this respect, the industrial schools formed part of a wider pattern.

Writing about the persistence of large mental hospitals in Ireland, the late Dr. Joseph Robins, who also wrote one of the first detailed accounts of the history of residential institutions for children and played a leading role in creating the modern child care system, wrote: "Institutionalisation both under the British administration and until recent times under native government was regarded by the authorities as the most economic and controllable way of dealing with social problems". It is small wonder then that our society produced generations of what Dr. Robins rightly called "the lost children".

The desperate economic and social conditions of many in Ireland were not in any sense an excuse for the conditions experienced by those who were committed to industrial schools. The report contains a devastating critique of the failure of the State, in particular through the Department of Education, to discharge its responsibilities in ways which would have protected children. The disregard for its own rules; the absence of any effective inspection system; the disregard of such problems as the limited inspection system revealed and of complaints from parents and others; the resistance to the growing volume of criticism and unease, including from other Departments and members of the Judiciary; the failure to act on the recommendations of a comprehensive review from an independent commission established by the Department in the 1930s at a time when the industrial school model was being replaced in the neighbouring jurisdiction; and the failure to exercise any proactive policy-making or standard setting role make for an overwhelming indictment of failure of responsibility.

The report attributes this to a deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the congregations concerned which compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty. This is undoubtedly a very significant part of the story. However, the evidence assembled in the report suggests that the Department shared, at least in the earlier years, much of the prejudice against the residents of industrial schools displayed by the general population. It is also clear the Department feared that interference in the school system could lead to the closure of the schools and a much greater financial liability for the State. In this, as in the behaviour of the religious congregations concerned, maintenance of the institutional system overshadowed other considerations, including the safety and not just the best interests of the children. Furthermore, the evidence in the report about conditions in Marlborough House Place of Detention, which was under the control and direct management of the Department, shows that the failings were not solely based on the involvement of the religious orders.

There is little for our comfort in this House on reading the Ryan report in recognising how seldom the industrial school system and the needs of children in the care of the State were raised here. Even then, the discussion was generally about specific issues rather than the adequacy of policy and provision. As for the religious congregations concerned, the report calls on them to examine how their ideals came to be debased by systemic abuse. It states: "they must ask themselves how they came to tolerate breaches of their own rules, and when sexual and physical abuse was discovered, how they responded to it, and to those who perpetrated it and more generally, how the interests of the institutions and the Congregations came to be placed ahead of those of the children who were in their care". An initial attempt at such understanding is reflected in a submission from the Rosminian Order published by the commission and referred to approvingly in the report. It is necessary that the other congregations undertake a similar review since, in this as in all things, only the truth provides a basis for living with integrity.

Confronted with this appalling story, the report naturally makes a wide range of recommendations. Some aim at alleviating or otherwise addressing the effects of the abuse on the people who suffered. These include that a memorial to the victims should be erected with the words of the apology made by my predecessor in May 1999 inscribed on it. Also, counselling services should continue to be provided to ex-residents and their families, family tracing services should be continued and the lessons of the past must be learned by the State and by the congregations.

The second set of recommendations is aimed at preventing, where possible, and reducing the incidence of abuse of children in institutions, and protecting children from such abuse. Briefly, these recommendations are that the overall policy and practice of child care should respect the rights and dignity of children and have as its primary focus their safe care and welfare.

In pursuit of this, national child care policy should be clearly articulated and reviewed on a regular basis and a method of evaluating the extent to which services meet the aims and objectives of the national child care policy should be devised. Rules and regulations must be enforced, breaches reported and sanctions applied. Services for children should be subject to regular inspections and these inspections should meet a specific set of requirements. Children in care should be able to communicate concerns without fear and should have a consistent care figure. They should not, save in exceptional circumstances, be cut off from their families and full personal records of children in care must be maintained. Finally, "Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children", should be uniformly and consistently implemented throughout the State in dealing with allegations of abuse.

The report has been published and its findings, conclusions and recommendations are known. It is proper that I should put on the record of this House the actions the Government has taken so far in response to it. In doing so, I want to make it clear at the outset that the Government's priority will continue to be the needs of the survivors, and that we will continue to engage with them in meeting those needs and in implementing the recommendations of the report that relate to them.

As the House will be aware, the Government held a special meeting on 26 May last to discuss the report. I issued a statement afterwards which reiterated our apology, on behalf of the Government, the State and all our citizens, to the victims of childhood abuse for the failure to intervene, to detect their pain or to come to their rescue. The statement made clear that the Government accepts all of the recommendations of the commission and is committed to their implementation, and that the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs will develop an implementation plan for them that he will bring to the Government for its approval by the end of July.

The following day this House passed a unanimous motion which among other things called on the congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions by way of reparation, in the context of discussion with the State, including to a trust to be set up and managed by the State for the support of victims and for other education and welfare purposes.

Last week, the Ministers for Education and Science, Health and Children, and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs, and I, met representatives of the survivors' groups and representatives of the religious congregations, and I issued a statement after each of those meetings.

The purpose of our meeting with the survivors' representatives was to begin the process of discussion of the issues arising from the report of the commission. I told the representatives that I was very glad to have the opportunity, with my colleagues, to meet with them to convey directly and personally our sincere apology, on behalf of the Government, the State, and all of our citizens, for the failure to intervene, to detect their pain or to come to their rescue. I went on to tell the representatives that the needs of the survivors of abuse are the Government's priority at this time and that we are committed to addressing these needs, and, indeed, other issues arising from the report, in consultation with representatives of the survivors.

I also stressed that those who perpetrated crimes against survivors, no matter how long ago, must be made amenable to the law so that they can be held to account for such crimes. The House will be aware that an Assistant Garda Commissioner has been tasked with examining the totality of the commission report and that criminal investigations are continuing in respect of a significant number of people.

I am aware that many survivors are very concerned at having what they see as a criminal record. At the meeting I made the point that, in fact, as a result of legislation passed some years ago, there is absolutely no ambiguity or doubt that those committed to industrial schools do not have a criminal record on that account. There was, in reality, no criminal record in any event for those who were committed to industrial schools, although the process of committal gave the appearance of criminal proceedings. However, it is now the law of the land, beyond any doubt, that no criminal record exists in such cases, nor in the case of those who were convicted and committed to a reformatory, on the basis that they did not reoffend within three years. The Government is very open to considering ways in which this legal reality can be brought out more fully to the benefit of survivors, their families and the wider community. Liaison with the survivor groups will continue and there will be further meetings with members of the Government.

The same Ministers and I also met representatives of the 18 religious congregations on Thursday last. At the outset, I told the congregations that the Government had accepted that the failings of the State had clearly contributed to the conditions in which the pain and suffering experienced by thousands of children in ways documented in the report of the commission came about and went undetected.

However, I went on to express the dismay and abhorrence which, with the whole of the population, the Government experienced on reading the report and the catalogue of suffering, deprivation and abuse which was the lot of so many children committed to institutions under the care of the religious congregations. I recognised that there was a variation in the extent to which the congregations at the meeting are covered by the report's conclusions, and also that those now in leadership positions in the congregations, like us in Government, are faced with the consequences of actions and failings of those who have gone before them in earlier generations. However, I pointed out that some of the severest conclusions of the commission regarding religious congregations related to recent attitudes and behaviour.

I made clear that the systemic nature of the findings and the sheer scale of the suffering endured by children and the grievous abuse of so many of them while in the care of the congregations meant that there is a moral responsibility to be faced. I conveyed to the congregations' representatives directly the view of the Government that further substantial contributions are required by way of reparation. Furthermore, I said that the contributions need to be capable of being assessed by the public for their significance by reference to the full resources available to the congregations and in a context of the costs of well over €1 billion being incurred by the State. I reminded the representatives that the Government's call on the congregations had been made also by Dáil Éireann in a display of unanimity through a motion passed without a vote, and I pointed to the moral force of such a call from the representatives of the people. I emphasised that the congregations' response to the Government and the public as a whole should be clear and unequivocal.

At the meeting, and again in a press release they issued afterwards, the congregations indicated that they were willing to make financial and other contributions towards a broad range of measures designed to alleviate the hurt caused to people who were abused in their care. Also, each congregation is fully committed to identifying its resources, both financial and other, within a transparent process.

It was agreed at the meeting that the congregations would meet with the other Ministers and myself again shortly, where I expect them to outline to us the nature of the process by which their further contributions by way of reparation to the victims will be made. That process needs to be robust and transparent so that their response to all that has been revealed in the commission's report meets the expectations of a public that is demanding a definitive, strong, clear, expeditious and sincere demonstration of the congregations commitment in this regard. The extent to which this is achieved will be assessed by the Government and we will consider what steps, if any, are necessary to ensure public confidence in the adequacy of any response.

The Ryan commission report has shone a powerful light into probably the darkest corner of the history of the State. What it has revealed must be a source of the deepest shame to all of us. Children in the care of the State, and in our care, were physically, emotionally and, in many cases, sexually abused, and the State and its systems failed to hear their cries or come to their aid.

The redress board was set up to enable survivors to be compensated without having to go through the courts. The commission has reported with a clear and measured account of the suffering of children in our institutions, and with specific recommendations aimed at two objectives, namely to alleviate the effects of abuse on the people who suffered and to protect children in care from abuse.

The Government will work with the representatives of survivors to implement the recommendations relating to them. It will also have before it by the end of July a plan for implementing all of the report's recommendations. While it is clear that putting all of the report's recommendations into effect will take time it is equally clear, given the abuse of children recounted in the commission's report, and the scale of it, that we must make implementing that plan, when approved, a major priority.

It is not only the Government that must reflect and act on the commission's report. The religious congregations face an important moral responsibility, which the Government and this House have made clear to them, to make further substantial contributions by way of reparation. It seems clear that how they meet that responsibility will deeply influence how the Irish people judge finally the extent to which the congregations live up to the values of their founders. Everyone, including the general public, must reflect on what the report has stated about how vulnerable children were treated and resolve that, from this shame and evil, we will make Ireland a model of how to treat children.

See this speech in context