Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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211. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the Private Member's motion to ensure that all victims of child sex abuse whose perpetrators have been convicted can seek redress from the State, which was passed by Dáil Éireann in July 2018; the interaction that has taken place between him and the independent assessor; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3925/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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As part of the implementation of ECtHR Judgement in the Louise O'Keeffe case Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill, a retired High Court Judge, was appointed in November 2017 as an independent assessor to assess cases where an individual has had an application to the ex-gratia scheme declined by the State Claims Agency - the administrators of the scheme.

Mr Justice O’Neill invited the Department to make a submission on: ‘whether the imposition of the condition which required that there had to be evidence of a prior complaint of child sexual abuse on the part of the employee in question to the school authority (or a school authority in which the employee has previously worked), to establish eligibility for a payment under the ex gratia scheme, is consistent with and a correct implementation of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Louise O’Keeffe v. Ireland’.

The submission forwarded to Mr Justice O’Neill on 27 April can be accessed on the Department's website.

Mr Justice O’Neill subsequently provided copies of submissions received by him from solicitors representing applicants for assessment and from third parties and subsequently asked the Minister to address in particular: ‘the legal status and/or legal effect in domestic law, of decisions/determinations of the Committee of Ministers in relation to the implementation/enforcement of judgments of the ECtHR.’

The second submission on foot of this request was forwarded to Mr. Justice O’Neill on 14 September and can be accessed on the Department's website.

Mr Justice O’Neill then received further submissions from third parties responding to the submission of 14th September and asked for further response. A further submission was sent to Mr Justice O’Neill on 21 January and that submission will be published on the Department's website shortly.