Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
KILKENNY TD JOHN McGuinness has asked the question in the Dáil if the final commission report into the ‘Grace’ case should be allowed sit on the record.
“The question for this Dáil is, are we going to allow this report to sit? Are we going to walk out of this chamber and say, well, we’ve heard from everyone, now that’s it. I don’t think we should do that. We should pressurise the government to ensure that this case is fully dealt with,” he said.
McGuinness, who has spoken out about the case for many years, has also called for the commission to appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions about its final report.
“You can’t walk away from this,” he told the minister today, outlining graphic details contained in various reports pertaining to Grace and the other 47 other children that lived in the home.
“I will not forget them,” he said.
“We should not forget him,” McGuinness repeated.
While millions of Euros had been spent on the Farrelly report, he said there have been lots of reports previously into the case.
“The reports tell you how many [children] in each year were in that house. The reports tell you in a factual way, how the house was constructed, where these people lived in out houses. One child was kept under the stairs and was sexually abused. Another woman described how her daughter was sexually abused.
“She describes it like this, ‘she would take off her clothes, she would put herself into a position which was a sexualised position, and that would not have been done by a non- verbal, emotionally and mentally challenged person’.”
He told the Dáil how representatives for Grace outlined how she would turn up at her day centre in a “filthy” state as she was incontinent and staff had to wash her at the centre.
She would put herself “into a sexualised position… lying down with her legs apart”, McGuinness told the Dáil.
“Are you going to ignore all of that? It’s not me saying it. It’s there in various reports by whistleblowers and by the staff within the HSE. You can’t walk away from this,” he told the minister.
“There’s so much wrong with this report,” he said.
“I hope to God that there’s enough people in this House, across all of the political parties, that will put down some sort of motion to bring the spotlight back on the HSE, the southeastern heathboard, and insist that they be asked to come before us,” he told the Dáil.
Sinn Féín’s Mary Lou McDonald called the commission’s report “anemic” in its findings.
Focusing on the intervention this week by the solicitor general for wards of court, McDonald told the Dáil that she cannot recall another incidence where the the general solicitor for wards of court has released a statement following the publication of a commission of inquiry.
Marie-Claire Butler, the General Solicitor for Minors and Wards of Court, who acts on behalf of “Grace” in the Farrelly Commission, in an extraordinary intervention this week, claimed that ”extensive submissions” were not included in the final report.
Controversy has surrounded the final inquiry report into the ‘Grace’ case since the final report was published last month.
In the debate on the inquiry today, McDonald said a statement from the general solicitor “is unprecedented”.
“I don’t remember another case where the general solicitor has come forward in this way, correct me if I’m wrong. She, not alone, affirms that substantive and extensive submissions were made on behalf of Grace” but that they were also “not acknowledged nor referred to in the commission’s report”.
“This report is, to my mind, absolutely shocking, shocking because it fails Grace again,” said McDonald.
In a statement delivered by Children’s Minister Norma Foley in the Dáil Chamber confirmed that following her meeting with the general solicitor yesterday, she received correspondence in the afternoon from the Commission of Investigation, stating that it had “fully discharged its obligations under Section 34 of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004″.
The minister went on to outline that in that section of the law, it outlines that before submitting the final or an interim report to the minister, the commission was to send a draft of the report, or the relevant part of the draft report, to any person who is
identified in or identifiable from the draft report.
Foley previously stated that she had requested the commission inform and disseminate the report to anyone mentioned in it, however, she told reporters that the commission said that this request could not be fulfilled.
“The Commission further confirmed its view that all steps were duly taken in considering submissions received, including those made on behalf of Grace,” said the minister.
Speaking about the other children placed in the home, McDonald said she found it extraordinary that the commission has decided not to investigate the condition or the experiences of the other 47 children.
“I struggle to express just how astonishing and disappointing all of this is. The minister said that Grace was at the heart of this process. That’s simply not true. The rights, the experiences, the advocacy for Grace, have all been, I believe, undermined by this process,” said the Sinn Féin leader.
“The sum total of it is that the commission makes a rather anemic finding of neglect. What I have heard of the Grace case spells out depravity to me, of a fundamental assault on the most basic human dignity of a person who could not speak for themselves. That’s what it was, so to simply dust this off as dental neglect requiring extraction of teeth or minor instances of lapses in hygiene, I think insults Grace and does no real justice or reflection as to what actually happened here,” said McDonald.
The minister in her statement today paid tribute to those she said “stepped forward and made protected disclosures relating to the handling of Grace’s case. Their courage and persistence were instrumental in her finally being moved out of the foster home”.
She outlined that the next step the government will take is the to undertake an expert-driven, non-statutory safeguarding exercise which she said would identify learnings from the commission’s findings to inform present day safeguarding policies and practices.
“Officials in the department are currently seeking to identify an appropriate expert in the field of safeguarding to carry out this exercise,” said Foley.
She said people referenced in the commission’s report, who were also in the home, will be invited to participate in this exercise “to share their lived experience, if they wish to do so”.
“Throughout this very dark and distressing episode, the one beacon of hope has been the confirmation that Grace is now living an extremely happy life, well cared for and well minded. It is my fervent hope that what Grace endured during those terrible years will never be forgotten and that she herself will continue to thrive and triumph,” concluded the minister.
have your say