Department of Education's role in Child Abuse Commission untenable -Greens:30|01|03

Green Party Education Spokesperson Paul Gogarty TD today described the finalreport of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy as a "damning critique" of the Department ofEducation's ability to adequately deal with the sensitive issue of Child Abuse in residential institutions. He warned that continuing involvement by the Department would seriously compromise the Child Abuse Commission's ability to gain all the facts necessary to find out the truth of what happened to survivors and victims of abuse.

"The Government needs to take serious heed of the reasons Ms Justice Laffoy resigned. It also needs to act on the recommendations made by Mr Justice Ryan and introduce the legislative amendments and resourcing required to allow the Commission to resume its investigative hearings without further delay. The proposed legislation must be fully debated in the Oireachtas and should include an immediate transfer of responsibility for the issue from the Department of Education to another, less implicated department, such as the Department of the
Taoiseach," said Gogarty.

The report by Ms Justice Laffoy claimed, among other things that the historyofthe Commission since its establishment was that it was "devoid of any realindependent capacity to perform its statutory functions", and its ability toperform its functions has been "jeopardized" by a failure of the organs of State to resolve issues of policy and resources. Deputy Gogarty also highlighted Laffoy's criticism of the Department of Education and Science's level of cooperation in disclosing documents to the Commission.

Deputy Gogarty said that the same difficulties would be faced by Mr JusticeRyan unless the Government learned from the Laffoy reports and belatedly provided the resources to enable the various strands of the Commission to enquire into ChildAbuse to operate quickly and effectively, while allowing survivors to achieve closure by getting their stories told, or by having their abuse investigatedwithin a reasonable time period.

"Last October in the Dáil, following the resignation of Ms Justice Laffoy, Istated that history would judge the Government and the religious unkindlywhenthe truth finally emerged. We can still live up to our responsibilities and do the right thing. Justice must be done and must be done transparently. The Government is the body with the greatest power to ensure that this justice emerges," concluded Gogarty.