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THE GENERAL SOLICITOR responsible for ‘Grace’ told Children’s Minister Norma Foley today that Grace is happy and living a meaningful and fulfilled life.
The solicitor for wards of court, who represented Grace at the Commission with a team of lawyers, said on Tuesday that the submissions made on Grace’s behalf were not included in the final report.
General Solicitor Marie-Claire Butler stated that she had submitted “extensive submissions” which she claimed were omitted from the commission’s final report.
Foley met with Butler today to discuss the matter.
In a statement following that meeting this afternoon, the minister set out that Butler has a number of functions in respect of vulnerable persons and acts under the direction of the President of the High Court, who is responsible for the legal, personal and financial affairs of Grace.
Butler told the minister today that Grace is happy and is living a meaningful and fulfilled life.
“She is well looked after and there is regular oversight of her care in her home, including by the President of the High Court,” the minister said in a statement.
The General Solicitor confirmed to the minister that the purpose of the meeting today was to ensure that the minister was aware that she had made considered and extensive submissions on the draft report on behalf of Grace to the Commission of Investigation prior to publication of the final report.
Butler also highlighted potential learnings for investigations in the future into issues involving people with disabilities.
The minister was also told today that Grace’s legal representation at the Commission of Investigation was paid for by the relevant government departments and not taken from her legal settlement.
Grace was awarded a settlement from the HSE of €6.3 million for the “failings in her care”.
At the meeting today, Butler told the minister that management of the submissions it made to the Commission remains a matter for the Commission itself.
The government’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Caoilfhionn Gallagher suggested today that the legal submissions, which Butler says were not included in the final report, could be made public.
However, Gallagher said it was very important that whatever happens next involves listening to Grace, her loved ones and her legal team.
Speaking this morning, Gallagher called for an “inquiry into the inquiry” of the Grace Case.
She described yesterday’s intervention by the General Solicitor for Minors and Wards of Court as “an alarm call”.
Asked about the intervention of the solicitor for wards of court, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in the Dáil today: “We are in very challenging territory.”
He said the minister is not responsible for the inquiry or how it was conducted, but added that the statement by Butler this week was “very serious”.
“Let us not try to politicise this. Let us look at the fact that the commission of investigation was established,” he said, stating that there are limitations around the Commissions of Investigation Act.
“I have made the general point that commissions of investigation sometimes do not give the closure or outcomes that people correctly expect, notwithstanding the spending of millions. This is worrying,” he said.
The Taoiseach said he will get a report following the meeting between the minister and the solicitor for wards of court today.
“We are in very challenging territory because of the legal framework governing the establishment of the commission. A commission is independent. Everything that transpires within it is within the legal framework, including in respect of confidentiality and so forth,” said Martin.
Pressure has been mounting on the government and on the Commission of Investigation over its much criticised final report.
The government’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection has called for an “inquiry into the inquiry” on ‘Grace’.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy said today that there is a need for Oireachtas committees, particularly the Disability Matters Committee, to investigate the case further, and suggested inviting the report’s author, Marjorie Farrelly to appear before the committee.
Grace is the pseudonym given to a young woman with profound intellectual disabilities who was left in a foster home in the Waterford area for almost 20 years, despite a succession of sexual and physical abuse allegations.
Grace had a difficult birth and suffered significant trauma to her brain which left her with profound, lifelong intellectual and physical disability.
Grace was 17 before she got a visit from a social worker. She is now 46 years old
The inquiry, which was established in 2017, was chaired by senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly.
The final report, which runs to 2,000 pages with no executive summary, states that the Commission is not satisfied that the evidence was such as to establish that marks and bruises seen on Grace were a result of her having been subjected to physical abuse.
The Commission’s report outlined that it did not establish that Grace had been subjected to sexual abuse over the years that she lived with Family X.
However, the Commission was satisfied that there was neglect in the standard of care provided to Grace by Mrs X, in terms of her clothing and personal hygiene.
The report did not find there was neglect of Grace in terms of the provision of food and sustenance while she lived with the family.
There is a finding of serious neglect on the part of Mrs X in relation to Grace’s dental care with the report stating there was also a level of financial mismanagement or abuse when it came to Grace’s disability allowance.
When asked to respond to the statement from Butler this week, the Farrelly Commission told The Journal it will not be responding to press queries in relation to its reports.
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