Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Eireann:

notes:

— the 2014 European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) judgment on the Louise O’Keeffe case;

— that the interpretation and application of this judgment is omitting sex abuse victims even when their perpetrators have been convicted because they have not made a prior complaint;

— that this interpretation is failing abysmally to apply justice to sex abuse victims whose perpetrators have not only been identified but also been convicted;

— that the State Claims Agency manages litigation in cases of alleged child sexual abuse in schools taken against the State and it is authorised to offer out-of-court settlements to citizens that come within the terms of the ECHR judgment;

— that only seven out-of-court settlements have been offered to date;

— that retired High Court judge, Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill, was appointed in November 2017 to independently assess eligibility of sex abuse applications to an ex gratia scheme but only 21 applications have been received; and

— the pre-conditions are causing huge distress to the victims involved;

agrees that it is unjust that citizens, who have been sexually abused by people who were employed by the State in primary schools and whose perpetrators were subsequently convicted of sex abuse, are excluded from the State’s own redress scheme because they are unable to prove a prior complaint; and

calls for access to the State’s redress scheme for those citizens who were sexually abused in primary school, whose perpetrators have already been identified and convicted, on the same terms as has been afforded to those in residential institutions.

I wish to share my time with Deputy Micheál Martin.

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