SURVIVORS of child sex abuse at a Limerick city primary school hope they will be able to access financial compensation from the State following the recent passage of a Fianna Fáil motion in the Dáil.
Victims of abuse at the Creagh Lane school had been excluded from the redress scheme because there was no prior complaint of the abuse made to the State, despite a criminal conviction being secured against their abuser.
The Dáil motion was to allow members of the Creagh Lane Survivors’ Group seek redress on the same basis as victims of residential institutional abuse.
The motion, tabled by Limerick TD Willie O’Dea, was in support of victims of the abuse at the Limerick school where convictions were secured against a former Christian Brother.
Deputy O’Dea told the Dáil that the Government’s attitude on the issue was “coldly adversarial” as his motion was passed with cross-party support.
“International research has shown that the vast majority of children who are victims of sexual abuse do not disclose that abuse; and that those who do, often wait a significant period of time before doing so,” he explained.
“We believe that the requirement to have made a prior complaint is an attempt by the State to deter victims from seeking redress and compensation.
“The prior complaint requirement means that even a victim whose abuser was subsequently criminally convicted cannot get redress in the absence of having made a prior complaint themselves. Our motion seeks to help this limited group of people”.
Deputy O’Dea added that the way in which victims are being treated under the redress scheme was inhumane.
“This is not a topic on which any party should engage in political point scoring. No government can be proud of the treatment of sexual abuse victims in our country”, the Limerick TD said.
“We are now trying to right a wrong in how this redress scheme has been set up”.
Members of the Creagh Lane Survivors Group now hope that their issues can fall under the remit of a revised redress scheme.
Former High Court Judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill has been appointed to conduct a review of the scheme and report back to Government on his findings.
