Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response but I am extremely disappointed. I have met a group of sex abuse survivors, the Creagh Lane group in Limerick, whose lives have been destroyed. We need action here. We must defend those people and make sure that they get justice.

The letters that were sent to the people who were claiming that they were abused were sent during the Dáil's summer recess. Several victims approached their local representatives about the letters but Deputies could not challenge the Minister or the Government. There is a question to be answered regarding the timing of the sending of those letters.

It is blindingly obvious that this scheme is not fit for purpose. It is my understanding that a relatively low number of applications have been processed to date and the vast majority of them have been declined due to the narrow criteria used. Clearly the Government has not listened to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on this matter. Even the courts have been critical of the approach of the State on this particular issue. In his judgment last year, Mr. Justice Barrett said that survivors might be forgiven for wondering if they will ever live to see the day when such injustice as may have been done to them is finally righted by a "foot-dragging State", to the extent that money can ever be a remedy for certain injuries suffered. Yet in the aftermath of that judgment, the State Claims Agency wrote to 107 plaintiffs again to tell them that they faced huge legal bills if they did not drop their cases. Seven of them did drop their cases. This happened on the Minister's watch.

The Government's approach on this issue is wrong, both morally and legally. It is causing untold distress to survivors of school child sex abuse. The Government appears to be more concerned with limiting damage to the State coffers than providing comfort and closure to survivors. That is what the survivors want. All that the members of the aforementioned group from Limerick want is closure and that is what this scheme is designed to do. I once again urge the Minister to reconsider the Government's approach to this issue and to ensure that survivors can access the justice they deserve. It is the least the Minister can do.

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