Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have had one false start in the matter of the commission of investigation into the care and protection of a named service user, Grace, a pseudonym, and the other 46 service users who were also placed in the same former foster home in the south east. That is, in my opinion, one false start too many.

I have availed, as have others over the past 24 hours, of the opportunity to engage directly with the Minister of State with responsibility for disability issues, Deputy McGrath, regarding the voiced concerns of Members of this House about the original establishing motion on the terms of reference for the commission. It is my view that the Minister of State and his staff have introduced greater clarity to the terms of reference regarding their intentions and the ask or brief that is now being made of or given to Ms Majorie Farrelly SC. I am in no in doubt as to the project now to be undertaken by Ms Farrelly but I am strongly of the view that there should be no further delay in the commencement of her work as sole member of this new commission of investigation. I am anxious the full facts are established as soon as possible and that a bright light is shone into all the dark places where Grace and the other mistreated and vulnerable young people were so cruelly let down and their safety betrayed.

This must include not just the former foster home and the so-called providers who lived there, but also the local services, the South Eastern Health Board, the HSE, the Garda, the social workers, a Government Minister or Ministers, anyone who had a State-approved or agency responsibility and anyone else who could have known anything about the abominable treatment to which Grace and the other innocent victims were subjected and who, if they knew, ignored what was happening or represented a false picture of that house and its shameful story. I do not only expect their exposure; I expect that, arising from this process, action will be taken including, where appropriate, criminal prosecution.

While this commission of investigation will focus on the specific placement of the 47 children in this former foster setting, I believe a wider investigation of the South Eastern Health Board and its successors in respect of their child care and child placement practices and policies should be undertaken. We should not be so naive as to believe that these disgraceful failures were confined to the south east. We need the truth across the board.

Finally, as a brother of a non-verbal, intellectually-disabled man in a HSE care home placement, I also demand, on my brother's behalf and on behalf of all others so challenged in life, the necessary assurances and the guarantee that he and they are and will be cared for as we, their loved ones, would wish. While I have every confidence in Dermot's placement and care, every parent, every sibling, every loved one is entitled to that same confidence and certainty. On behalf of Sinn Féin, as spokesperson for disability rights, I put on the record my support for the proposition and its associated terms of reference.

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