Thursday, 3 December
Taoiseach accused of showing undue deference to Church authorities; Papal Nuncio should appear before Oireachtas Committee; Clerical abuse in Northern Ireland must be investigated; Reform of child protection laws must be prioritised and recent deaths of children in care of the State must be independently investigated
Those in a position of authority within the church and those who perpetrated the appalling abuse graphically described in the Murphy Commission Report deserve our condemnation. It is right that we react with horror to these revelations. It is also essential that the Gardai do everything possible to achieve justice for the victims of abuse. There must be no impunity for the perpetrators of abuse or for those who covered up and facilitated abuse by moving abusive priests from one parish to another. Government must also take seriously calls for the Murphy Commission to investigate other dioceses in addition to the Cloyne Diocese.
We should also remember that the Church authorities exercise their mandate throughout the whole island of Ireland. No Redress Board has been established to pay compensation to victims of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland nor has a Commission been established to investigate allegations of child abuse by priests in Northern Ireland. There is no reason to believe that clerical sexual abuse stopped at the border. I am calling on the Government to engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive; with the Northern Ireland Secretary of State and with Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland. We have an interest in this State to ensure that justice is done for all who lived on this island. Deputy O’Snodaigh of Sinn Fein on Tuesday was remarkably silent on this issue.
The Murphy Commission Report not only documents the failings of the Church but also the failings of the State and our State agencies. The latter failings I will address shortly. However, prior to doing so, there is one specific issue that requires attention.
The Murphy Commission records that it wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome in September 2006 looking for important information but received no reply. It further records that the Congregation contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs stating the Commission had not gone through “appropriate diplomatic channels.” It did so, I understand, in March 2007, some 6 months later. The Taoiseach told the House on Tuesday that this response was furnished to the Murphy Commission. It appears that there was no further communication involving the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Commission also reports that it wrote to the Papal Nuncio twice. He has explained his failure to reply on the basis that he was only appointed to Ireland in April 2008 and had no information he could give to the Commission. Surprisingly the Taoiseach in this House on Tuesday excused the conduct of both the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Papal Nuncio. The Taoiseach was defending the indefensible. By his words he was not, as Taoiseach of this Republic, acting in the interests of our people but displaying in this House the undue deference to those in church authority which has been justifiably criticised in recent days.
Let’s not forget that the communications by the Murphy Commission to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to the Papal Nuncio were seeking information and documentation relating to clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin. Diplomatic niceties did not prevent the Congregation in June 2001 from writing to every Diocesan Bishop instructing that where complaints of clerical sex abuse were concerned, these were first to be referred to Rome for Rome to determine how they were to be dealt with. The instruction was also accompanied by a letter in Latin stipulating that it was to be kept secret. In May 2001, a great deal was known about the abuse of children by those in clerical garb. The Taoiseach had already apologised for the State’s failings; new child protection guidelines had been put in place; criminal prosecutions of religious had occurred; civil actions by victims of abuse had been taken in our Courts and eight years had elapsed since the compensation claim taken by the courageous Andrew Madden for abuse perpetrated by Ivan Payne had been settled and the settlement funded by arrangements made by Cardinal Connell. No bishop nor anyone in a position of authority in Rome could in 2001 have been ignorant of the fact that there was an obligation on those who learned of child sexual abuse to make available to An Garda Siochana all information possible to facilitate an investigation and a prosecution. The June 2001 instruction issued to the bishops told them to not only ignore Irish criminal law but to not act to protect children at risk of abuse without prior sanction from Rome.
It is a scandal that the Congregation and the Vatican relied on diplomatic protocol to avoid providing information to the Murphy Commission. In his convoluted defence of what occurred, the Taoiseach did not adequately explain why the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern TD, failed to follow up the letter received by his Department and ensure the Murphy Commission received the information and documentation it was seeking. The only conclusion that can be reached was that this failure to act was just another example of undue deference being shown to Rome by an Irish Government Minister.
Protocol, whether real or imagined, was given greater priority by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over the welfare of children. With regard to the Papal Nuncio, no issue of protocol prevented his responding to the Murphy Commission by letter even as a matter of courtesy. If he personally had no documentation or information to furnish to it, he could have said so. He could also have facilitated the work of the Commission by asking his predecessor what assistance he could give to it. That the Taoiseach should defend the Papal Nuncio’s failures in this context is beyond comprehension.
The Papal Nuncio is the Vatican’s ambassador to this State. I believe he should be invited to a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Health and Children Committee to address the issues raised by the Murphy Commission both with him and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and that the Committee should explore what can be done to ensure his and the Vatican’s full co-operation with the Commission in the current investigation into the Diocese of Cloyne and in any future investigations into other dioceses. I hope the Papal Nuncio will co-operate in this. He is after all regarded by this State as Head of the Diplomatic Corps and essentially primus inter pares. In most countries that do not have a special relationship with the Vatican, the Head of the Diplomatic Corps is normally the longest serving ambassador. That should be the position in this Republic. If the age of undue deference is truly over the Papal Nuncio should not be treated with any more or less respect than the ambassadors of other States with whom we have diplomatic relations.
In a speech he delivered on the steps of Government buildings on the day the Murphy Commission Report was published, Justice Minister Ahern, surfing the wave of justifiable public outrage, cynically presented himself in heroic guise criticising Church authorities and the priests who preyed on young children. He stated and I quote “it is not now – nor has it ever been – acceptable that institutions behave or are treated as above the law of the State. This is a Republic – the people are sovereign – and no institution, no agency, no church can be immune from that fact.” This would have been impressive, if it were not coming from a Minister whose Fianna Fáil party has been in Government for 20 out of the last 22 years and which is responsible for our currently seriously dysfunctional and chaotic child protection system. The scandalous culture of secrecy, cover-up and absence of accountability for which the Roman Catholic Church is justifiably criticised is endemic in the State’s child protection services.
In 2002, David Foley was 14 when he arrived at Dublin’s Pearse Street Garda Station reporting trouble at home and seeking help. Instead of getting the care he needed he ended up in an emergency care hostel as part of an out-of-hours service. On the 10th September 2005, almost three years after he entered the care system, David Foley was found dead, at the age of 17, in an apartment in Dublin’s inner city from a drug overdose. Brian Lenihan, then Minister for Children, asked the HSE to conduct an internal inquiry into the care provided to David Foley. It is believed that in December 2008, the report of that inquiry was furnished to the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews. Despite numerous promises made by him, the report remains unpublished and secret.
Tracy Fay at the age of 14 was placed in the care of the State. A series of recommendations for her to be professionally assessed were not properly implemented and she went through a series of chaotic emergency care placements. In January 2002, four years after being admitted into care, she died of a drug overdose. Despite serial promises, the completed internal HSE report into her death remains unpublished and secret.
In September 2006, Melissa Mahon aged 14 was killed by Ronnie Dunbar, a prolific known paedophile. Melissa was the child of Freddie and Mary Mahon, three of whose daughters were taken into care in the United Kingdom before they moved to Ireland. Melissa had made allegations of sexual abuse against both her parents. I am informed that British social services informed the HSE of their concerns about the Mahon family. At the time of her death, Melissa was supposed to be in the care of the HSE. Following Dunbar’s conviction and life sentence in July last, I called for an independent review into the HSE dealings with Melissa Mahon and with the Mahon family. I do not know whether any such review is taking place or whether any report will ultimately be published.
On 4th August 2009, Danny Talbot died aged 19. He and his family were utterly failed by the HSE and our children’s services. On the 6th of October last when meeting with family members seeking an enquiry the Minister for Children promised to revert to them within three weeks. They have still heard nothing from him.
The Monageer report into the deaths of two children in Wexford was published on 12th of May 2009 with sections, including seven recommendations blacked out. The content of this report and the recommendations contained in it are vital to identify failures, if any, on the part of State bodies which could have saved the lives of these children and where action is required to ensure, insofar as is possible, a similar tragedy does not again occur. “Legal difficulties” were cited as the reason for the censorship of this report. Similar legal difficulties arose in 1996 with the report into the death of Kelly Fitzgerald and were overcome by its being furnished to an Oireachtas committee which published it as an interim report for public comment. Despite promises made by the Minister for Children to similarly deal with the Monageer report, nothing has been done. Its seven recommendations for change remain secret.
On the 19th February last, the Minster for Children was asked the number of children reported to be at risk or in care who have died during the past 10 years. Surprisingly neither the Minister nor his Department had such information. I was informed that he had “asked the HSE to gather the information requested” and to forward it to me. The Minister also stated that the HSE had advised him the information would take some time to compile and every effort would be made to furnish it to me within three months. I have still not officially received this information. However one week after the reply received to this Dáil question, information was leaked to the Irish Times that 20 children in care had died over the last six years. In July, the HSE announced the establishment of a review group to investigate and report on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of children who have died in care in the last decade. I presume this review is currently continuing. Extraordinarily some of the deaths to be investigated are the subject of unpublished internal reports, such as those that apply to David Foley and Tracy Fay.
It is entirely unacceptable that no automatic independent investigation is triggered when a child in care or reported to be at risk dies. How can we ensure that children insofar as is possible, are protected in the future when there is no accountability or transparent system for learning from the tragic deaths of such children who have been utterly failed by the State? On behalf of Fine Gael, I am again calling on the Minister for Children to publish in full all existing reports into the deaths of children in care and to guarantee that a proper independent and transparent investigation will take place into the circumstances surrounding the death of any child reported as at risk or who dies while in the care of the State or shortly thereafter and that the resulting report be made public.
The Ferns Report 2005; the July 2008 “National Review of Compliance with the Children First Child Protection Guidelines”; the Ryan Commission Report – all detailed the inadequacies of our child care laws and services. In July last the Minister for Children published an “Implementation Plan” to address many of the inadequacies documented. Much of what the plan contains is praiseworthy. The problem is that new legislation required is not being prioritised and the inadequacies in our child protection services are not being addressed quickly enough. Children who deserve better continue to be at risk.
In the year ending 31st December 2008, out of 24,668 reports of children at risk made to the HSE only 15,364 were assessed and 9,304 reports of children at risk were neither assessed nor investigated. There is no contemporaneous and accurate information relating to reports of children at risk nor is there presently any assurance that the Children First Child Protection Guidelines are being uniformly applied across the country.
The Government must immediately prioritise the legislation required to put our Child Protection Guidelines on a statutory footing. There is no reason why such legislation could not be enacted and in force by next Easter. The Minister’s promise to simply have it drafted by December 2010 and operational in 2012 is totally unsatisfactory. The Government should also immediately prioritise the long-promised legislation for the use of soft information in child protection. It was first called for in the Ferns Report in 2005. In September 2008 the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children’s Rights said it should be published by December 2008. The Government’s promise that Heads of a Bill will be prepared by the end of this year means that there is no possibility of such legislation being enacted and coming into force before 2011. Scandalously, the Murphy Commission Report reveals that inter-agency meetings between church authorities, the Gardaí and the HSE to address issues of clerical abuse of children as recommended by the Ferns Report were blocked by the HSE and never occurred because of the absence of legislation on soft information. It is simply not credible for the Minister for Justice or the Minister for Children to portray themselves as committed to child protection when the enactment of such legislation continues to be delayed. It took less than six months to conceive and enact the complex NAMA Bill. It will be at least six years since publication of the Ferns Report before we have legislation on soft information.
Finally there is an urgent need for the Government to introduce legislation to amend the Statute of Limitations Acts 1957 and 2000. Such legislation is needed to facilitate victims of clerical abuse seek compensation who did not do so in the past because they lacked the strength to do battle with the Church or felt that they would not be believed as they could not prove their allegations due to lack of access to Church records. The publication of the Murphy Report assists these individuals by confirming that extensive records validating allegations of abuse are held by the Church Authorities.
Ends