Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the establishment of this commission. It is very welcome and very long overdue. It is essential that this commission of investigation must be survivor-centred and the terms of reference must be comprehensive and drafted in consultation with the survivors and the representative organisations. Given that up to 300 allegations of sexual abuse in 32 schools in Cork were recorded during the scoping exercise, I suspect it is more. I have spoken to some of these survivors. I have known these survivors. Many have detailed that they had to emigrate because they were hurt. Many experienced marital breakdown, psychiatric events, addiction and suicide attempts. In 1981, The Stranglers song "Golden Brown" was at number one and I was called in by my school principal and told I was not going to be thrown out of the school but they would much prefer if I did not come back after the Easter holidays. That is how they dealt with cover-ups and abuse - they just got rid of it. I heard speakers talking about it and burying stuff. I commend the Ryan family because the two most difficult things to do in this country are to tell the truth and help people. You will be absolutely battered and punished for it.

What makes me angry here is the cover-up that happened in this. I urge us all to work together on this. I have lost many friends. It took over 22 years to find out what actually happened in the area I represent in east Cork. I have lost school friends from primary school where the abuse started. I was not aware of it and I was in the same class. It continued into secondary school. People ran away from the school and came back qualified as solicitors and everything else but unfortunately ended their lives. Between 2000 to 2002, we had 59 suicides in east Cork, 58 of which were men.

This is a huge scoping exercise. I also point out that some of the people who were responsible for this and who are accountable are still alive. Some of these principals and vice principals, Christian Brothers and lay teachers, are still alive. Others have thankfully been convicted and have died in prison but this is a huge issue. I am only speaking from my own experiences. I have been lucky enough that I was strong enough to stand back from it but there are others who have died as a result of this. Please let everybody work together and do the right thing for these survivors.

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