Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)

This commission to investigate historical sexual abuse in schools is very much welcomed but it is long overdue. With every year of delay, survivors grow older and the risk of evidence being lost increases. Thousands of children across the State were failed by those entrusted to protect and raise them. Not only were they failed but their entire childhood was ripped away and destroyed. It is vital that survivors play a central role in this commission. It must be survivor-centred. While the commission represents progress, I am extremely disappointed that physical abuse is excluded. The Minister must address this point and clarify why this decision was made.

Recently, I met a man who was failed by the State 72 years ago. After the tragic loss of his mother, he and his sibling were placed under the supported care of the Sisters of Charity. This happened despite neighbours offering to care for him and his family to keep them together as one. The State intervened and said no. The State ensured the family was torn apart and sent to a boarding school. As the survivor told me, it was more of a workhouse than a boarding school. The horror and brutality he endured as a child is staggering. Seventy-two years later it still haunts him. The institution and the religious order that inflicted such brutality must be held accountable. The suffering inflicted does not just devastate the survivors; it ripples onto each passing generation. The children of these survivors are left shouldering that emotional burden too.

We have heard the Ministers promise this before. Now, we need action. This man's childhood could have been saved from horror; instead, the State failed him repeatedly, denying him the chance of a normal stable life and denying him a life surrounded by family, neighbours and a community who wanted to care for him. He was cast to the wolves by the State. As important as redress is for survivors, the people responsible for robbing their childhoods need to be fully accountable for their actions or for watching on and doing nothing. I worked with adults with disabilities, who are some of our most vulnerable people, many of whom do not have a voice. We need a person-centred approach, one that does not retraumatise survivors. They have been through enough.

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