Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to say how pleased I am and how much I welcome the news that the Minister for Education, Norma Foley, is this morning updating her Government colleagues on the implementation of the landmark Louise O'Keeffe judgment. What a brave and courageous woman she was against all the odds in terms of how she had to go public time and time again about her abuse. I commend Norma Foley on her work on this and, from that, as she herself said, the learning. We can have all these tribunals of inquiry and judgments, but the reality is that the European Court of Human Rights found in favour of Louise O'Keeffe in its judgment and found that the Irish State was liable for sexual abuse she suffered while in her primary school - her primary school. What a job she had to convince people and what a road she had to take. I understand that the action plan is to be published by the Minister, subject to Cabinet approval, and the details of that action plan will include child protection procedures in schools and update the State on related compensation schemes. As I said, I salute Louise O'Keeffe but I also thank the Minister because she did something about this, unlike so many people in the past.

Finally, the European Court of Human Rights decided that there has to be a framework of laws in this State that will cover the issues and protect our children in our schools against the risks of sexual abuse, the material effect of which authorities knew of, or ought to have known of, at that time. I thank the Government for being proactive and thank in particular the Minister, Deputy Foley. More important than anyone, however, I thank Louise O'Keeffe, a brave and courageous woman who told her story. As a result, hopefully, we will have legislation stemming from this, and that is all very positive.