Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

Eight years and €13 million later, we are still in the dark about what Grace endured. Shockingly, critical information and extensive submissions have been omitted from the 2,000-page report, according to the legal team responsible for the legal, personal and financial affairs of Grace. This raises huge questions about the report. That such vital information should be omitted from it beggars belief. Farrelly's report on Grace managed 2,000 pages, the equivalent of a box of paper, the Minister knows how big that is, yet no executive summary is apparent - firehosing at its finest. That we even needed a Farrelly commission into the Grace case is a damning indictment of a system that abandoned a vulnerable, non-verbal young girl in the most appalling way imaginable. I am a plain speaker and this is a national disgrace. I know the Minister knows it too, because I could see how uncomfortable she was on the day this report was published. Grace was left in a foster home where allegations of sexual abuse and neglect had been raised repeatedly for 20 years. Grace was left in this foster home when other foster children had been removed. Yet, the decision-makers in the State, the cream of the crop, the ones who rose to the top under successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments not only failed Grace but actively looked away. Reports from social workers were ignored, whistleblowers were silenced. Bureaucratic indifference won and basic human decency lost. It did not happen in a vacuum; it happened under successive Governments that put institutional reputation above the welfare of its citizens, in this case, a vulnerable, non-verbal child.

We have scoliosis parents whose children had unapproved springs planted in them by doctors at CHI. Hip dysplasia children have seemingly been operated on who did not need operations, while other scoliosis children wait for an operation they cannot have. We have the cervical smear scandal, where Vicky Phelan stood up to the might of the HSE, as did Emma Mhic Mhathúna from my own constituency of Kildare North. There was Brigid McCole and the hepatitis C scandal. For 43 years the Stardust families were left waiting for an inquest and an apology. Thalidomide mother, Peggy Murphy, died last month without one. Scandal after scandal, lack of accountability after lack of accountability. We should not be surprised, since the man backing up this arrogant Government was himself found guilty of corruption before the Moriarty tribunal. The Government continues to bend the knee to his will, all to cling to power. If this Government's power trip lasts another four and a half years, as true as I am standing here, we will be back again with some other scandal. The Irish people deserve better and Grace deserved better.

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