Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the motion to establish a commission of investigation into the handling of complaints against the convicted Waterford child sex abuser Bill Kenneally. Most important, I wish to commend the courageous individual men who stood up and pushed for an inquiry from the beginning. That was after having been denied justice initially when they revealed Bill Kenneally's crimes to trusting adults at the time but were ignored. These heroes have forced the Government to commit to uncovering yet another dark truth from Ireland's shady past. I hope this process leads to the State acknowledging those who were responsible for the silence and cover-up which enabled these atrocious crimes to be carried out on young boys over a period spanning 30 years.

I am also happy that those men who stood up for justice for all victims of Bill Kenneally, Jason Clancy, Colin Power, Barry Murphy, Kevin Keating, Paul Walsh and Gerry Mullane, have welcomed the terms of reference announced by the Minister. I am delighted they had a direct input into the process of setting out the terms of reference and made some necessary amendments which I understand were accepted by the Government. This establishes a necessary template for how victims of abuse can have direct involvement in their pursuit of justice. I am also glad that the commission is empowered to investigate information indicating that gardaí were informed of the allegations against Mr. Kenneally either before or after the specific years as contained in the terms of reference. Nobody should be immune from justice.

The terms of reference are also wide-ranging, leaving no stone unturned. They include An Garda Síochána, the South Eastern Health Board, Basketball Ireland, the Waterford Catholic diocese and unnamed political figures. While the allegations made by the abuse survivors were primarily against the gardaí, the commission will have powers to investigate acts or omissions of the other organisations if it was shown gardaí passed information to them regarding any offences allegedly committed by Kenneally.

As we undertake another commission of inquiry, we need to ask ourselves why Ireland has had such a blighted history, particularly when it comes to the well-being of children. The answer is aptly reflected in the following quote: "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power to corrupt absolutely”. These were words used by a 19th century historian to describe the overwhelming power of the church and its close relationship to the State at that time. Now, almost 200 years later, it still adequately identifies that element in Irish history which uniquely enabled abuse to be carried out on such a grand scale and for so long.

Systemic abuse does not happen in isolation. It requires the secrecy of a larger group of people, mainly those who have the power and networks available to them to maintain that secrecy. Thereby the criminal act continues to be carried out. The fact that Kenneally was allowed to abuse children for such a protracted period is an indictment on the State and its cosy relationship with key organisations in the past. This put children and vulnerable people in danger while entire populations were marginalised by the culture of silence and fear.

It takes a larger system of support for a man like this to do what he did. It will take an entire country to account for that and change this for the future. Taking into consideration all the inquiries into clerical child abuse, for example, a remarkable feature has been the low conviction rate of alleged perpetrators in the courts. In September 2015, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, the Catholic Church watchdog in Ireland, published a report into 325 allegations made against 141 members of six religious congregations. The report found that only eight led to convictions.

Irish men and women who were sexually abused in schools when they were children are still fighting for redress, despite the European Court of Human Rights finding the State liable for abuse suffered by Cork woman Louise O'Keeffe in 2014. This is unacceptable and indicates Ireland’s inability to come to terms with its past or accept the level of responsibility needed to ensure all victims have access to justice and to ensure that these horrific acts are never carried out again under the nose of the State.

However, a report published only this month by HIQA confirms those days are not entirely over. Shortcomings in Tusla were uncovered in an investigation by the authority revealing children in danger of sexual abuse are being left at risk by serious weaknesses in social services. How can we still be at a stage in our history where children are put at risk by the State? As we enter the realm of more than a dozen commissions of investigations and inquiries, I hope that this one will not be unnecessarily delayed and that it will remain a transparent process for all victims of abuse involved. I hope the process will also offer some reflection on the part of the State in how it can best protect children now and into the future.

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