David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 205: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she has had communication from persons who attended day schools and who alleged that they had suffered abuse while students; if she has taken action as a result; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21396/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Following the Taoiseach's apology in May 1999, my Department received correspondence from a number of former pupils of day schools who alleged they suffered abuse while attending those schools. A number of actions have been, and continue to be taken, in response to these former pupils as part of the package of measures announced at that time.

The Government established the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse to afford victims of abuse in childhood an opportunity to tell of the abuse they suffered to a sympathetic and experienced forum and to establish as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of physical and sexual abuse of children in institutions and in other places, including day schools. The amendments made to the Statute of Limitations Acts have assisted day school survivors of sexual abuse in bringing civil actions in the courts. The Government also put in place a regional professional counselling service, dedicated specifically to providing support and help to survivors of child abuse.

It was decided not to establish a compensation body for victims of abuse in day schools on the basis that the State had a very different role to play in relation to ordinary schools and that the duties were both quantitatively and qualitatively quite different from the situation obtaining in residential institutions. In the latter case, the State took the place of the family and had a corresponding duty to provide for effective methods of protection for them. Public bodies had important powers to exercise and duties to carry out in respect of children who were abused. The State's failure to exercise those powers and to carry out those duties contributed directly to an environment where the abuse could occur.