Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The case of Louise O'Keeffe deserves to be remembered not only for the heinous crimes that were perpetrated against her but mainly for the way the State has tried to distance itself from them. It is a signal in regard to how the State deals with such cases. This has been done on our behalf and on behalf of every citizen of this State, but who gave the State the right to do it? Rather than admit its responsibility and ours, the State tried to cover it up and deny any responsibility, which is wrong, although that is what the State is continuing to do.

It is worth remembering what has been written about Ms O'Keeffe's case. The Irish Timesstated:

When the little girl of eight and her classmates were abused there was no one to whom they could turn. Similarly at the criminal hearing there was no representative of the State to offer support to these victims. It was a case of “hear no evil, see no evil and thus there was no evil". [...]

Nobody seemed to care that it took more than 20 years before any girl summoned the courage to make a complaint to An Garda Síochána. Accountability is important, in terms of recognising past errors but also in seeking to prevent their repetition. A civil legal case was therefore taken to get such accountability.

The State denied any and all responsibility for the acts of the teacher. Yet the State dictated how many teachers may teach in a school, it pays their wages and their pensions on retirement, negotiates such pay and working conditions, sets their qualifications, gives them recognition to teach in school (without which they cannot teach) and sets the curriculum. [...]

Forty-one years after an eight-year-old girl was sexually abused by her principal in school, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in her favour: the State had failed to “put in place any mechanism of effective State control against the risks of such abuse occurring”.

The judges said it was “an inherent obligation of a government to protect children from ill-treatment, especially in a primary education context”.

This is the key point. It is the State's responsibility to protect all children in primary school, yet here we are, all these years later, and still the State, meaning us, is not willing to stand up and face its responsibility.

No one is clear from responsibility in this case. Fianna Fáil was in government when much of this happened and Fine Gael has been in power when dealing with the fallout from the case. I would hope that if I were in the position to deal with these cases, I would deal with them compassionately, but I do not know for certain. My main concern would be dealing with the victims rather than the burden on the State.

The Minister's response is horrific and terrible. Why is it that we will only do the bare minimum when dealing with these issues? Is it that the State thinks people are only trying to make money out of the situation? It is as if someone would put themselves through years of pain and suffering to get the amount of money that is involved in this case. The Minister has not done this on my behalf or on behalf of millions of Irish citizens so who has he done it for? He is only our representative in dealing with this. We are telling him it has to be dealt with and resolved, and he should do it.

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