Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last night on the "Claire Byrne Live" television show, a whistleblower gave her account of how she believed an intellectually disabled child called Grace was left in a foster home, in which she was constantly and consistently abused, until 2009. It is known that this foster home or household to which children were sent for summer respite services was so engaged from 1983 to approximately 1996, when it ceased taking new placements, but that Grace was left there until 2009 and that another person, Ann, was left there until 2013. The abuse has been described as quite shocking - it genuinely would shock any person - and it is incomprehensible that a child would be left for so long in such a dangerous household. I have been watching the proceedings of the Committee of Public Accounts this morning and the various questioning to and fro there. My first point is that the whistleblowers are clear that serious abuse was perpetrated on those children in the 1990s and, if I understand the matter correctly, even though files were sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, for some reason no prosecutions took place. Therefore, the first question I ask of the Taoiseach is whether there may be mechanisms whereby the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions could be asked to give a report explaining why these cases did not materialise into prosecutions on foot of the files that were sent. I understand from one report this morning that five files were sent to the DPP during that period. My second point is that approximately 47 children or adults were involved in this scandal.

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