Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Taoiseach's statement and acceptance that what the Government did was wrong. However, he used a phrase, on which I need clarity. He stated it "may" involve a reopening of the scheme. To me, it will have to involve a reopening of the scheme because it was founded on the wrong premise. In an assessment of the judgment Dr. Conor O'Mahony stated that to limit the implications to the 13 cases was a wilful distortion of the assessor's decision. He went on to state that if the condition of prior compliant was inherently incompatible with the O'Keeffe judgment, as a matter of human rights law, it must be dropped for all applicants. Cases are pending, while others have been discontinued because of the extraordinary pressure put on many of the litigants and victims. It is accepted that many victims of child sexual abuse go through extraordinary trauma throughout their lives. When the power of the State is devoted to continuously denying them justice, that trauma is exacerbated beyond belief. The Taoiseach stated the Government would not fail the victims again. We need clarity on the cases we know are pending or have been discontinued. Will he indicate that it is the Government's intention to open these cases to the ex gratia scheme?

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