Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Grace is a victim of a series of appalling and shameful failures. Back as far as 1992, allegations and concerns were first raised about the suitability of the placement in that particular foster home. There were allegations of physical abuse and neglect. There were further allegations concerning at least four other children in the same home. Nothing was done. Nobody was held to account. Forty-seven other children were placed in that same foster home right up until 2013. Again, nobody was held accountable.

In 1995, day care staff raised serious concerns about Grace's distressed state and found bruising across her body. There is no evidence that any investigation was ever carried out. Nobody cared enough to investigate. Again, nothing was done and nobody was held accountable.

In 1996, there was a review carried out by a three-person panel. Despite the allegations and concerns of abuse and neglect, it was decided to return Grace to that same foster home and that she should stay there. The HSE has said that this was a missed opportunity. A missed opportunity. There are absolutely no words for that statement. It is devoid of all humanity. Again, nothing was done.

In 2004 there was a failure to move Grace from the same foster home.

Not only was there a failure to remove her once again in 2004, but her name was actually removed from the waiting list of a residential care unit. Who in God's name made that decision? Who in God's name is responsible, knowing what they knew, for removing Grace's name from the waiting list of a residential care unit? Five years later, in March 2009, after hospital staff had contacted the Garda and the sexual assault treatment centre, Grace was once again returned to the same foster home. The buck has to stop somewhere. Two reports were commissioned, one in 2012 and the other in 2015. The first sat on a shelf gathering dust for years. Apparently it was three years before the report was handed over to the Garda. Who took the decision to stash the report on a shelf and not allow it into the public domain? That was a decision taken by top management. It was not a care worker who decided a commissioned report should sit on a shelf and go nowhere. What was being hidden?

The review of the two reports carried out made 40 recommendations. Does the Minister of State know how many of the recommendations have been implemented and how many have not and, if not, why not? In recent days, to add insult to injury, the HSE has stated disciplinary proceedings are to begin immediately with regard to staff implicated in care findings, but who can trust it? This is the same organisation which not only failed to act but was complicit in the neglect and abuse of Grace. It did not at any stage attempt to remove her from the foster home. Why should we believe anything it says at this stage? Does the Minister of State actually trust the same organisation which for 20 years ignored Grace's suffering? Now, after 20 years, just when the case has come to the fore and is in the public domain, the HSE states it will carry out disciplinary proceedings. Why did it not do so when Grace was suffering?

It is clear the commission of investigation must not only establish what happened, and I mean the truth of what happened, it must deliver accountability. This is the one thing that has been missing all along. It was not just a systems failure, it also involved the failure of individuals. We need to know who was responsible. We need to know who made the decisions at the top of HSE management. We need to know about the allegations of a cover-up. We need to know whether files were destroyed and, if so, who requested those files to be destroyed. The word is "accountability". We need to know why nobody was ever disciplined. Why was nobody ever sacked? There was a criminal investigation. Why was nobody ever charged?

I am not directing the comment at the Minister of State personally, but the commission of inquiry will not be worth the paper it is written on if he does not, for the first time, go hell bent on stamping out the culture of unaccountability in State. This is what needs to come from the commission of inquiry. Stamp out the culture of unaccountability which is rife in HSE top management. It is known the length and breadth of the State. I wish the Minister of State well but it will not be worth the paper it is written on unless this culture is stamped out and those responsible for Grace's suffering held to account.

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