Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)

For too long, survivors have had to fight to be heard. Since 2009, I have known and worked with courageous men who were the victims of sexual abuse at Creagh Lane school in Limerick. I met some of them again yesterday. The way they have been treated is frankly appalling. They have been on a very long journey to justice. Unfortunately, that journey has yet to be concluded. These men were failed terribly by the State. It is important that while we discuss this issue, we do not lose sight of just how evil these crimes were.

One survivor of Creagh Lane, who told me he was abused at the age of eight, described the school being about survival and him looking at a teacher and thinking, "How do I get away?" Another survivor told of how he had to be tied to a buggy just to get him to school. Yet another spoke about how he shut down, stating, "All I know is I was crying for my mother."

This abuse impacted on them as children and has followed them into adulthood, some suffering mental health challenges and others having left this world through suicide. From protests outside the gates of Dáil Eireann to bringing their concerns to the European Parliament, these men have fought to bring attention to the abuse and their nearly daily battle to seek redress. The case cuts to the heart of how we, as a State, have treated those who have been wronged. The commission of investigation must be better. It must take a very different approach to that taken by previous Governments in the context of dealing with reports of such vile abuse. Following Louise O'Keeffe's 15-year legal battle, it took years for survivors of sexual abuse in day schools to have themselves included in redress schemes, years which, unfortunately, many of the men abused at Creagh Lane did not have. While several of the issues relating to Creagh Lane have been addressed, we are far from getting closure. I urge the Minister to make contact with the group as a matter of urgency and discuss their ongoing issues, which are far from being sorted. The abuse they suffered is not historical. They live with the terrible consequences to this very day.

The establishment of a commission of investigation is a long overdue acknowledgment of the harm done to thousands of children in the State. However, I am concerned that the commission will have up to five years to submit its report. That is far too long.

To echo some of the comments my colleagues made about physical abuse, there has to be some version of that included in the report because thousands of people suffered such abuse. I saw it in my school and classroom. I saw colleagues in my classroom being absolutely battered, smashed off the walls and smashed over the heads for making simple mistakes with essays, etc. Children nowadays would have probably been diagnosed as dyslexic, not as being bold or as truants. They were absolutely smashed every single day of the week, and they will all be excluded from this.

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