Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for affording me the opportunity to raise the matter. All children are vulnerable but particular safeguards are required for children with intellectual disability. The report I wish to raise is that of Dr. Kevin McCoy on the Western Health Board inquiry into the Brothers of Charity services in Galway, and it is disturbing for a whole series of reasons. One of these has not come to any serious public notice.

In March 1999 an inquiry team was put in place at the request of the Brothers of Charity to examine serious allegations of physical and sexual abuse of many children who suffered an intellectual disability and who had been cared for within institutions run by the Brothers of Charity in Galway. It is extraordinary that this commission of inquiry was appointed in March 1999 but by mid 2001 every member appointed to it had resigned. All that was left was the chairperson, and two of the people appointed to the inquiry by the Western Health Board had resigned by the middle of summer 1999.

It has taken an unacceptable period for the report to be published, some nine years from the initiation of the inquiry. If the victims of abuse had not been persons of intellectual disability, there would have been a public scandal a number of years ago and a demand for publication.

I want an inquiry by the Department on what happened with this inquiry team. Why had they all resigned by August 2001 and why was this not made public knowledge? Why did the chairman apparently struggle on and survive until January or February 2006 before resigning? Dr. McCoy, who finally completed the report, was given the task in spring 2004 of providing assistance and finally piecing together the information to allow a report to be published in November 2007.

In the context of serious allegations of sexual and physical abuse of people with intellectual disability, it is entirely unacceptable that it took this length of time to publish this report. I demand an inquiry into the manner in which the Western Health Board and later the HSE approached the task.

The report itself details yet another tragic litany of abuse but we are given absolutely no information. Despite taking almost nine years for it to be published, only 21 victims of alleged abuse were dealt with, although 135 residents in Brothers of Charity institutions have sought compensation through the redress board for alleged abuse of a sexual nature.

The report did not travel the distance and produce the comprehensive information it was obliged to. It contains a variety of recommendations, some of which have become familiar to Members because they are a mirror image of recommendations produced in other reports into the abuse of children in institutions. All that makes this different is that it applies to children who have an intellectual disability.

This report should have been published by approximately 2001 at the latest, and these recommendations should have been introduced long ago. I call on the Minister to ensure we have national standards put in place and inspections conducted in residential centres and community homes for children and adults with disabilities. This has been promised since the mid 1990s but nothing has been done.

There are currently 400 children with disabilities living in residential settings whose homes are not inspected and where there are no applicable national care standards. There are applicable standards for children taken into care under the Children Acts, as well as an inspectorate system. We do not have it for those who have a disability.

I want an accountable and transparent system which protects the children in this country. I call on the Minister to take the necessary initiative to give this the priority the Western Health Board and HSE in this case have failed to give. Will the Minister detail to this House the specific action being taken to ensure the detailed recommendations contained in the report will be implemented?

There is another extremely disturbing aspect of the report. Identified in the report not personally but by number are 18 people who engaged in physical and sexual abuse. Eight of them have since died, two have been prosecuted and eight have never been prosecuted. I want to know why prosecutions were not taken in those incidences.

I would like to posit a brief theory as to why this is the case. In the courts in October we saw a tragic case of a 20-year-old adult with Down's syndrome in circumstances in which allegations of sexual assault were taken against an individual. Those allegations were dismissed by our courts because the judge hearing the case took the view that the person suffering from Down's syndrome did not have the intellectual capacity to give evidence and deal with cross-examination. That court has laid down a ruling that creates a very serious problem. It indicates to predators that it is open season on those who suffer disability and cannot provide evidence in our court system. There is an urgent need to enact emergency legislation to address that issue and protect the people who are so vulnerable because they suffer from a disability. We are in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights in this area. It is reasonable to posit that no prosecutions were not taken against eight of the people, who, it is accepted, perpetrated sexual and physical abuse against intellectually disabled children referred to in the report, because the prosecution authorities feared the prosecutions would fail for the reason the prosecution failed in the case I have identified. I ask the Government to address the issue as an urgent matter to protect persons who suffer from disability.

Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. On Tuesday, 11 December 2007, the HSE published a report into allegations of physical and sexual abuse in the Brothers of Charity services in Galway, at the Holy Family School and Woodlands Residential Service at Renmore, Galway City and Kilcornan Residential Services, Clarinbridge, County Galway. The inquiry was established in 1999 when the Western Health Board and the Garda Síochána became aware of allegations of abuse within the Brothers of Charity services. Allegations were made in respect of a period between 1965 and 1998 by 21 clients at the Renmore and Kilcornan services against 18 people. Some 11 were members of the Brothers of Charity congregation, four were lay staff and three were former service users.

There was a serious delay in completing the report. It was initiated by the former Western Health Board in 1999 and no report was finalised until now. The HSE has apologised to the victims and their families for this delay. Dr. Kevin McCoy, retired chief inspector of social services in Northern Ireland, was commissioned in May 2006 to finalise the report.

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister of State know why the inquiry team resigned?

Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The report details terrible abuse suffered by some of the most vulnerable members of society. It is further evidence of how some of the most vulnerable people in society were badly let down in the past. On behalf of the Government, I reiterated on Tuesday the Taoiseach's formal apology to all those affected by abuse in institutions operated or funded by the State, including the Brothers of Charity services in Galway.

The HSE has advised me that the original inquiry team acted promptly in 2000 by notifying the Garda Síochána of all allegations of abuse and relaying all files and cases to them. I understand that two of those who are the subject of complaints received a conviction. The then Western Health Board and subsequently the HSE have worked closely with the Brothers of Charity in offering immediate support for those affected, follow-up for each individual client using the service, and follow-up for service users generally.

Regarding the number of cases investigated, it is important to bear in mind that only those who made formal complaints could be dealt with individually by the inquiry. While we understand that others may have applied for redress under the redress board scheme, their confidentially must be respected.

I understand that agreement had been reached between the HSE and the Federation of Voluntary Bodies to develop a programme to close all institutional or campus style residential services for people with disabilities and to relocate them to more appropriate community settings. The Woodlands Residential Centre was closed in 1984, and the Kilcornan Residential Centre is in the process of being closed. Residents will be relocating to more appropriate accommodation in the community as soon as possible. I also understand that agreement has been reached with the Federation of Voluntary Bodies to carry out a comprehensive national audit and review of client protection issues within disability services.

A number of important issues have been highlighted by the publication of this report. The delay in preparing the report is totally unacceptable. The HSE has already apologised individually to each complainant and did so again on Tuesday when the report was published. At the request of the Department of Health and Children, the HSE is developing protocols for the management of all future inquiries of this kind.

In addition, I have arranged to have an immediate inquiry carried out by an independent person into the causes of the delay in preparing this report. The person will be asked to report to me as quickly as possible. I am committed to ensuring that all residential facilities for people with a disability are independently monitored and inspected by the Health Information and Quality Authority. HIQA has commenced work on standards for designated residential centres for people with a disability which will form the basis for statutory regulations and inspections. In the meantime, I have asked the HSE to take all possible action to ensure the quality and safety of these services. The HSE recently published a formal guidance document on residential facilities for children and will do so in respect of adults early in 2008. The HSE will be making it a condition of funding under its service level agreements that the contractual arrangements between the HSE and agencies that provide disability service will include, for the first time, quality and safety measures to ensure that the users of a service can enjoy a rewarding and safe experience to which they are entitled.