Tom Clonan (Independent)

I have the full consent of Louise and Caitlin Hassan, and this is a matter that has been covered on the public record in all the national newspapers and on RTÉ, the national broadcaster. All the parties have been named and all the detail has been published, and this is the reason we are here. Here is a family that has been completely failed by the State. To get the help and support they need, many victims of sexual assault have to renounce their anonymity.

On the publication of the report on the Grace case, the Minister, Taoiseach and Tánaiste repeatedly asserted such a case would never happen again in the State. It is happening to Caitlin Hassan right now on the Government’s watch. The multidisciplinary team and Avista published a comprehensive report on the supports Caitlin needs, and she is being denied those. Part of the reason she is being denied them is the legal action Caitlin's mum has been forced to take to vindicate her rights.

If I were knocked down by a drink driver and suffered broken limbs, a broken shoulder and a fractured skull, would the Minister of State deny me medical treatment because of the potential for the criminal prosecution of the driver of the car? He would completely disregard any such process and treat the injured party. Therefore, any legal steps the family in question have been forced to take in regard to the sexual assault and rape of Caitlin Hassan are completely irrelevant. To deny her the medical supports and therapies set out in the report is to add moral injury to physical injury.

When I was talking to Louise about this, she told me it was enough in anyone's lifetime as a mother for her daughter to tell her she has been raped in the care of others. That is enough to be going on with in one lifetime, but to have the resources of the State mobilised against her, to have the State have highly paid legal teams engage in lawfare and accuse her of lying and of a conspiracy theory, and for the State to withdraw all treatments is retaliation and failure. That is precisely what happened in the Grace case and precisely what is happening today. Therefore, I ask the Minister of State to communicate with the Minister responsible for disabilities, Deputy Foley, and the Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill. We are not instructed by solicitors; we instruct them, and the Minister is currently instructing solicitors, senior counsel and barristers to fight the family in question – a single mother and her child, who was sexually assaulted while in the care of a State-provided carer, Avista.

The Grace case, we were told, must never happen again. It is happening right now on the Government’s watch. Its members have all been informed. I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Grealish, to take the necessary action and provide the support and immediate care that Caitlin and her mum need.