Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. He confirmed that nobody has been compensated under the redress scheme. I echo the comments of the Taoiseach, which are very important. He said the State could have acted but did not, and he also said the compensation scheme was not working. The Minister is new in this Department and I hoped he would take a different approach from that taken by his predecessors. I wrote to him on 23 October to congratulate him on his appointment as Minister and to ask him to meet survivors of abuse which occurred at Creagh Lane national school in Limerick, as a priority. It should be one of his top priorities but neither he nor anyone from his Department bothered to reply to my letter. He should meet with these men and listen to their horrific stories and hear, at first hand, the horrendous abuse they suffered as children at the hands of their teacher, which has been proven in court. It may then dawn on him that something needs to be done about it.

It is scandalous how these men have been treated by Fine Gael. It ought to be ashamed if it intends to continue this approach. I do not want the Minister's reply to me to be about a previous scheme or any other scheme. He knows the story. He knows this Government is blocking these men accessing the redress they deserve. Their childhoods were ruined by paedophiles and their lives scared by the abuse. The very least they deserve is to be treated with dignity and respect and to be provided for in respect of the hurt and loss they have suffered because of the failure of the State to protect them when they were children. They do not want to empty words or sympathy. They want the Minister to take action. I reiterate my request to the Minister in October last year that he meet myself and one or two of the lads to discuss this matter.

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