Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

This is an extremely difficult and challenging topic. I feel a huge weight on me to speak on behalf of people who have experienced child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools. I welcome the visitors to the Gallery. As difficult as it is for me, I do not know the words to describe what it must be like for them. It is very important that we discuss this here, that there can never again be silence for what has happened in the past and that we have full justice for survivors or victims. Those two words are interchangeable throughout my contribution. This needs to be realised through a non-adversarial and trauma-informed approach.

The Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders from 2022 laid out lessons that must be listened to and implemented for this newly announced Commission of Investigation into the Handling of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools. Well done to the Minister for getting it to where it is now. She is very new in her post and she is to be commended on pushing through with this.

The scoping inquiry, which I read over the weekend, was told of 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools countrywide between 1927 and 2013, involving 42 religious orders that run, or previously ran, schools in the State. The 1970s saw the highest number of incidents. This was just a few years after free second level education started. The Central Statistics Office has estimated that the number of people who may have been affected by child sexual violence who are over the age or 35 years is 15,300 men and 26,000 women. That is 41,300 people, and they were children at the time.

The terms of reference of this new commission are vital to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. I am a little concerned, however, that there will be a parallel process with regard to redress. There is no mention of assets of religious orders or schools in the terms of reference, and I am concerned about that. Ireland has already paid €1.5 billion in redress for survivors of intuitional abuse. This is an extremely important detail that should be set out at the beginning and not rely on "parallel" work. I understand what the Minister has said but I am really quite cautious about the fact that it is a parallel thing. I do not want things to be delayed but, at the same time, we have learned from the past that things have not been as they should have been.

The "RTÉ Investigates" programme on the Christian Brothers showed that that entity held, transferred and sold over 800 properties over the course of three decades since the scandal of clerical child sexual abuse began to emerge in full public view from 1990. The scoping inquiry showed that the Christian Brothers were the largest offender when it came to child sexual abuse in schools and the largest provider of schools.

The Minister must make a full statement on this parallel process regarding assets, outlining what is known, how the Government will oversee this "work" and what steps are being taken to address issues in a timely manner.

Legislation to address the lacuna with regard to unincorporated associations is long overdue.

It enables, for example, Christian Brothers to force every victim suing it for child sexual abuse in civil courts to seek court orders for each individual Christian Brother who was a member of the congregation at the time of abuse and effectively taking maybe over 100 cases against brothers instead of one. The exploitation of that legal loophole was first highlighted by RTÉ in 2023 yet today the Christian Brothers continue to exercise this legal tactic in courts.

The “RTÉ Investigates” programme also highlighted the problem for the public in trying to get to the bottom of exactly what assets religious institutions and charities have. The Christian Brothers, for example, do not have to publish their full accounts as a charity here whereas in the North and in England they did. Financial information is available to the public with the exception of charities that are private charitable trusts. The Christian Brothers are not a private charitable trust. Due to a loophole stating that private charitable trusts are not currently required to submit their annual financial statements to the Charities Regulator, because regulations prescribing how these financial statements are prepared were never enacted. I am aware that it is intended that amendments to the Charities Act 2009 and the Charities (Amendment) Act 2024 with tougher regulations to make it a legal requirement for all charities to submit annual financial statements in addition to completing the annual report form. However, the information will still not be published on the register. We need to ensure that these religious orders are compelled by law to be transparent. The amendments to the Charities Act 2009 do not go far enough. Religious orders should not be able to hide behind any legal loopholes.

We know from experience that religious orders and other charities will use every loophole, lacuna and ambiguity in regulation to avoid disclosure. The Government cannot make mistakes made in previous inquiries and have no place to be repeated in this new commission. Unfortunately, Ireland seems to love to repeat making the same mistakes when it comes to the care of children.

The terms of reference must clarify the debt owed to the state from religious bodies and others who failed in their duties to protect children from harm. The former Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall called for a very significant proportion of costs to come directly from them. This must be included before the commission begins so that it is crystal clear what is expected.

The Government must do everything in its power to ensure this new commission is accessible to all. The scoping inquiry found that a very large number of allegations of abuse happened in special schools. The accommodation rights of people with intellectual disabilities must be recognised in the terms of reference. This includes things like plain English, audio visual and accessible formats of all documents produced. It also means communication accessibility for those who are non-speaking or with literacy disabilities is crucial. The surveys outlined in the terms of reference may not be sufficient for people who have such additional needs. We need to ensure it is as inclusive as possible.

We must also use the lessons we learned from the Grace case and ensure everyone's rights under the UNCRPD are upheld. That includes stipulating how it will be ascertained a person is "incapacitated" and to ensure this part of the terms of reference is compatible with the provisions of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act and presumption of capacity. It is very concerning to say "incapacitated" without any detail on how this conclusion is arrived at.

The Social Democrats will work with the Minister and all Members of the Oireachtas to make sure this is a trauma-informed, survivor centred and fully appropriate redress scheme for all people. The people who will come forward in this commission are victims and survivors but one thing that must not be forgotten is they were children. They were children at the time the abuse happened to them and it ruined their lives. They had their lives ruined by people in authority who did whatever they wanted to those children and no one stopped it.

When I read the scoping inquiry at the weekend, what really struck me was that children went to day schools and to boarding schools. The children who went to day schools went home at the end of the day, were with their families and they may have been safe for a while but those children who went to boarding schools could not escape. There was nowhere for them to go. They were there day and night and whatever those people wanted to do to them was done to them. They had no one to protect them and they were trapped. Think of the fear of that. How they got through that I really do not know.

The State should not be going with a begging bowl to any religious organisation or school or anyone involved in this and relying on the goodwill of those bodies. People who sexually abused children in our schools or people who covered it up or people who turned a blind eye do not have any good will. They have no morals. They are hiding assets and relying on loopholes to avoid redress. We will work with the Minister. It is incumbent on everyone in the Oireachtas to make sure this is the best it can be for those survivors who have come through. I commend the Minister for this work and look forward to working with her on this and making sure that this is the beginning of the end and we do not need to continually have these inquiries and investigations because it is the end of the silence and the abuse for children in our schools.

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