Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)

I want to express my thoughts and concerns for Grace, for her family, for all victims of State wrongdoing and for victims who have been further bruised by the failure of the State to facilitate their access to justice.

The key points I want to raise today are the flaws in our framework for accessing justice through commissions of investigation, tribunals and inquiries. I want to speak out to those people who are concerned right now, whose loved ones are in care in various ways across the State. They are seeking reassurance at this difficult time. We need to see improvements in safeguarding overall but for adults in particular. We have seen some improvements but we need more transparency and accountability.

Grace is a victim of State wrongdoing. Her access to justice has not been facilitated by the State and the process of investigating what happened to her is flawed. I want to speak specifically today about the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004. It was introduced to address the shortcomings that we had seen previously in tribunals and inquiries. It has in some part proved helpful in the establishment of such tribunals, inquiries and commissions of investigation, which have at times reached the human rights standards that we would expect of those investigations, but, sadly, more often it has not.

I know that there is concern and reticence about reopening such key legislation that ultimately has the potential to fulfil our needs in terms of human rights compliance. However, at this stage when we see the length of time, the delay, the cost and the shortcomings of what are emerging from this legislation, we have to look at it again. We have to question why it is not meeting the needs of people who have been wronged by the State and in the State in seeking and accessing justice for those wrongdoings. It is not good enough and that Commission of Investigation Act 2004 is absolutely crucial within this.

That experts this week have essentially called for an inquiry into the inquiry tells us that this legislation is flawed and needs to be revisited. It must be revisited if we are ever to expect to deal with legacy issues and with the wrongdoings that so many vulnerable people in this State have been dealing with for their whole lives. In my work in the human rights and equality space, I have met many people who have become experts in human rights and equality because of the failings of the State to meet their needs in accessing justice. They have literally gone and got masters' and PhD qualifications so that they can fight for their own cause in multiple judicial settings and access justice, as the State is not doing it. We are continuing to establish commissions of investigation, inquiries and tribunals that despite the fact they have within the legislation the facility and the parameters to set terms and conditions that will meet those needs, are failing again and again. They are failing the most vulnerable people within this State. We need to look at that and ask how we can set a better foundation for the establishment of investigations that will actually meet people's needs and achieve justice for those who have been wronged.

What is so upsetting within this context is that it does not just affect those people who have been wronged, but all those people who are in facilities and settings across our State where there is a power imbalance and they are vulnerable in the dynamic they are in. The State is the one that holds the greater power in those instances. All people in those settings and their families and loved ones, who support them in those settings and who want to be reassured that they are safe there, are impacted by what has happened in the past couple of weeks with the publication of this report and the statement from the State’s General Solicitor for Minors and Wards of Court since then. We need to reassure those people that we are serious about finding justice and about establishing a framework for finding justice that actually works and meets those needs.

There is no question that safeguarding has improved since Grace's case. There is no question that the HSE has continued to work to address some of these shortcomings. In fairness, successive Governments have done what they can in some instances to try to address those shortcomings. I do not deny that safeguarding has improved, but it is not where we need it to be. Certainly, when it comes to transparency and accountability, it is nowhere near where we need it to be.

I urge the Government to be serious about dealing with this in a way that reaches right down into those foundations and down into the roots of legislation and frameworks so we can actually build systems that provide the justice that people seek in these instances.

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