THE DÁIL will hold a special two-day debate to discuss the implications of the “harrowing report” of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, which detailed physical and sexual violence against more than 1,000 children in 216 institutions.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlantold the House that a special Cabinet meeting will be held next week to discuss the report which runs to almost 3,000 pages and the Dáil debate is expected to take place in the week after the local and European elections.
She agreed to the debate following Opposition calls for a detailed discussion and criticism of current child protection policies which were still “failing children”.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton, who led calls for a detailed consideration of the report, said the "failures of the State have been unforgivable" and "long since apologies were made publicly, the Government is still presiding over a system full of failures", with the 1999 child protection guidelines still not implemented.
He warned that “any words of apology from us on behalf of the State will ring hollow in the ears of people who were at the mercy of the courts and were mistreated by them, who were dependent on the Department of Education to provide supervision and protection for them and were let down and who, when they complained of abuse were not listened to, which is an appalling litany.” The State “simply turned its eye the other way. It was too appalling to consider that the complaints made were true and needed to be acted upon. Instead, it hid behind the relationships established with institutions, which is unforgivable.”
Labour leader Eamon Gilmoresaid they needed a mechanism to re-open the indemnity deal done with the religious orders who paid about €127 million towards redress payments to victims of abuse, but the bill for the taxpayer was 10 times that amount.
He referred to the report’s conclusion about the “deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the congregations” and said that the “same deferential and submissive attitude was alive” when then minister for education Dr Michael Woods concluded the agreement in 2002 with the religious orders. He also said that the €2 million cut in payments to the Residential Institutions Redress Board should be reinstated.
Mr Gilmore said many children were “abducted from their families” and put into institutions to provide “what can only be described as a kind of headage payment of institutions who knew that those children were being abused and that the only reason they were in those institutions was that they were from poor families”.
The cover up and collusion by the then department of education was “shameful” and destroyed lives.
Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghin Ó Caoláinsaid the debate should include recommendations from other reports including the Monageer inquiry "because child abuse is not confined to decades past and in institutions overseen by religious orders". He said the Mental Health Commission's report should also be included.
Ms Coughlan repeated the apology made by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern 10 years ago on behalf of the State to victims and said the commission’s report “poses great issues for the State on how the State discharged its responsibilities. It poses issues for the religious orders and it poses issues for our wider society.” Questioned about current legislative proposals such as on statutory rape and “soft information” she said legislation was being drafted but stressed that child care legislation was “enormously complex”.
