Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

Like others, I welcome the establishment of the commission of investigation into historical sexual abuse in all-day and boarding schools. I do in all sincerity regret that it has taken so long to move into this area and ensure that all survivors who are still alive receive acknowledgement and, hopefully, some justice. I express my personal sympathies to the survivors and all the families involved. The scoping inquiry was told, as others have mentioned, of 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between 1927 and 2013. The historical context has been outlined time and again, but we are very slow learners, if people will pardon the pun, when it comes to dealing with these matters.

During my first term as a TD, we had many debates on what became the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002, the Committee and Report Stages of which were debated in 2005. That legislation was passed specifically to deal with the residents of institutions, not those attending day schools, but in 2005, I tabled an amendment to include former pupils of day schools who were the victims of abuse. This was not allowed and the matter was not followed up on. Here we are 20 years later. It is a shocking, embarrassing and sad indictment of successive Governments that they let this run on for so long. We know that throughout the history of the State, the State itself, its agencies, many ordinary people, judges, gardaí and those involved in social work facilitated decades of abuse in our society, largely, but of course not exclusively, perpetrated by those in religious orders. I know the Minister was not here back in the day. It was a former Minister, Mary Hanafin. Why has it taken so long to get to this point? We will face more harrowing debates about the torture and abuse in day and boarding schools. Even though there were efforts to minimise the extent of the abuse and real efforts by religious institutions to reduce the responsibility, we have done nothing to act in respect of that.

Back in the day, I described the €12.7 million indemnity agreement with the religious orders as shameful. It was a bargain from their perspective but it was a slap in the face for the survivors. We still have not seen the framework for what will happen here with regard to compensation and just redress, but we need to proceed as quickly as possible now that the scoping inquiry has been completed. All I am asking is that all schools are included, all stories are told and that there is full transparency and full compensation. Nothing less will suffice.

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