Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Recently, there has been great recognition and support for those men and women who have had the bravery to find their voices to highlight their experience of abuse, incidents of sexual assault, rape and pressure on them to perform sexual acts in return for favours. Some of those who have come forward recently with their stories and allegations tell us that those incidents occurred before they were 18 years. Many allegations involve high profile figures from the political world, film, theatre and music and we have seen similar revelations in Ireland. The victims who have made allegations recently are in a place in their personal lives where they can confront what happened to them because they know that today they will be believed and they have a good chance of getting justice. That is such an important part of the recovery process but I want to remember those who were not believed and those who did not get justice or support for one reason or another. Because they did not get justice, they continue to suffer every time an allegation of abuse is made, when they relive that abuse.

In March 2015, I raised the issue of those who made accusations against their swimming coach with then Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. I raised it because they never had justice. There were 27 allegations of indecent carnal knowledge of minors, which took place some years ago, against this individual who was their coach. I can imagine the bravery of those who came forward over 20 years ago when it was a very different atmosphere. In spite of the great efforts of An Garda Síochána, that came to nothing, there was no justice. Some weeks ago I watched the RTÉ documentary made in 2006 in which some of the victims told their stories. The journalist in the documentary followed the individual accused of the abuse to America where he has been living. Recently, through the work of an investigative journalist, Irvin Muchnik, through freedom of information requests, through a court hearing and through a settlement, it has become obvious that mistakes were made both in the US and Ireland. Irvin Muchnik sought to find out why American authorities allowed George Gibney into the United States and why Irish authorities and Irish individuals facilitated that.

An interesting thing to emerge from the settlement was that, through a freedom of information request, the US authority on citizenship and immigration services, a subdivision of the Department of Homeland Security, released four pages relating to George Gibney and withheld 98 pages. I am asking that in light of that court hearing and settlement, that the appropriate officials in both this jurisdiction and the United States have a conversation in the hope that justice might finally be realised for those victims.

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