Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Fianna Fáil for tabling this very important motion. I welcome into the Public Gallery members of VOCADS, Victims of Child Abuse in Day Schools, and all other survivors who made the journey. Separately I pay tribute to Louise O'Keeffe on her work on behalf of survivors. I commend John Boland, John Allen, Mark Vincent Healy and all the other people directly involved. I am very grateful to all the survivors in the Gallery for the service they and those like them have given to our State. Over a teaching career, an abuser had access to thousands of children. The survivors' efforts in having these abusers removed from our school system saved many thousands of children from decades of emotional and mental torment, addiction, broken families and, in many cases, suicide. Their selfless actions, which came at huge personal cost - I have in mind the personal humiliation many of them had to suffer while helping others - allowed many children to reach their full potential. Tonight, I thank the survivors for their efforts.

I have worked with survivors of sexual abuse for many years and my special adviser, Damian O'Farrell, has a close relationship with the secretary of VOCADS, Mr. John Allen. On behalf of survivors, I corresponded with the Minister of Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, and earlier this week the Minister kindly facilitated a meeting in Government Buildings. Those in attendance included the Minister and the Attorney General, who were accompanied by senior staff and advisers. The Office of An Taoiseach was also represented. I thank the Minister again for his work and understanding on this issue. I attended with my special adviser and raised several matters on behalf of the survivors.

The first is that the 2014 scheme, to which survivors are seeking entry, is an ex gratiascheme. It was also mentioned that some survivors had died in tragic circumstances while waiting access to the scheme. Then there was prior complaint being a condition of entry and the near impossibility of proving, or even showing, prior complaint, in respect of which we raised the point that the vast majority of victims of child abuse did not disclose their abuse and that, as a result, the number of prior complaints on which one could rely was minuscule by comparison. Also on survivors' behalf, we raised the significance of the Ryan report which highlighted the lack of integrity of the then Department of Education, on the same historical records of which survivors now have to rely to show prior complaint. The Ryan report states:

The Department of Education dealt inadequately with complaints about sexual abuse. These complaints were generally dismissed or ignored ... The Department, however, gave the impression that it had a function in relation to investigating allegations of abuse but actually failed to do so.

In addressing this matter at the meeting I reiterated that I was referring to the Department of Education in historical times only. I acknowledged and commended the Department of Education and Skills for the vast body of work it carried out to protect schoolchildren. To further demonstrate the difficulties in having to rely on prior complaint, we also gave as an example a mid-1990s written complaint which had effectively been ignored and in which case the teacher who was subsequently convicted had been allowed to teach for a further three years.

I thank and commend Louise O'Keeffe, John Allen, John Boland and Mark Vincent Healy and all of the survivors and victims for their efforts on this issue.

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