Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There are some very courageous men and their families in the Visitors Gallery. These are the men who suffered, along with others, the horrific sexual abuse in the late 1960s and who have had the courage to speak out and campaign about it despite all the difficulties they have faced along every avenue they have tried to go down.

This is a very distressing issue, as one realises when one talks to the victims, as one should, but it is also a very simple issue. The men were abused by a teacher being paid by the State. That is uncontested. The man was convicted. Afterwards, the victims faced threats and bullying all over again, this time from the State. The Government attempted to bully them into silence, telling them that if they did not drop their case, the State would pursue them for legal costs. They faced the same bully-boy tactics used against the victims of abuse in 2009 after Louise O'Keeffe lost her initial case. She went on to be vindicated by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that the State was liable for the abuse she faced in school. At that time, the Taoiseach was forced to issue an apology to her.

Despite this, the Government has thus far tried to avoid the consequences of the O'Keeffe ruling. The focus on the need for prior complaints is completely bogus, as is hiding behind the suggestion that the case is statute barred. The man responsible pleaded guilty to serious sexual assault. There is no doubt about or question mark over the fact that the abuse occurred. Despite this, the victims feel they are being persecuted for a second time 50 years on. There are being told they do not qualify for the redress scheme through no fault of their own but through the actions of the State. This is about the State accepting responsibility and apologising. The least the Government could do in this regard would be to allow the victims into the scheme, which was set up precisely for this sort of circumstance.

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