Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am no lawyer but the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the State has a liability where there was fault involved.

The fault that it has established is where there was prior abuse established and it failed to act. That is the criterion that is being applied. The State did not run the schools in question and the court established that had the State been aware or should have been aware because the information was brought to the attention of those in the schools and the State could have been aware, that is when the liability occurs on the State. We were following the European court judgement in this respect. As I outlined, we are providing compensation that does not require people to go to court to get compensation where those circumstances were met.

Obviously, we have a wider obligation which is also part of the court ruling, which is to report on the protections we are putting in place to ensure children in our schools are now fully protected. As I outlined in the reply, a considerable effort has been made to put new procedures in place as follows: the compulsory vetting of all sorts of staff, including of teachers through the Teaching Council; now the Children First guidelines and in time the mandatory reporting requirements; and the obligation for child safety statements to be developed and for risk assessments to be put in place by these institutions. The law is continually evolving to ensure we protect children in these circumstances. The response of Government has been in accordance with the court ruling where State liability only arises in those circumstances where the State knew of the prior offences that were involved.

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