01 August, 2014 - Draft Action Plan in response to Louise O’Keeffe case published
The Council of Europe will today publish an Action Plan, submitted by the Irish Government on 23rd July 2014, in response to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Ms Louise O’Keeffe.
The draft Action Plan sets out the individual and general measures that have been taken in response to the ECHR judgement.
Regarding the individual measures, the State has paid a total of €134,550 to Ms O’Keeffe’s solicitor. This amount consists of €30,000 in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, €85,000 in costs and expenses and €19,550 VAT on the latter amount.
In relation to the general measures, the Action Plan records that first of all, since the early 1970s when the events which gave rise to the O’Keeffe case occurred, Ireland has been developing and improving its child protection arrangements. In relation to schools, the Action Plan states that the Department of Education issued guidelines to schools in three phases, in 1991/1992, 2001/2004 and again in 2011.
Secondly, as part of Ireland’s response to the Judgment of the Court, a review has been initiated of the current and planned child protection mechanisms in the school system to assess the extent to which issues identified in the judgment have been addressed in the period since 1973. A sub-committee within the Inter- Departmental Implementation Group on Children First comprising of Senior Officials across a range of relevant Departments is carrying out this task.
Thirdly, in relation to litigation, the State Claims Agency which is handling the relevant litigation has been reviewing its day school abuse cases to identify those that come within the parameters of the judgement and this review has been completed. The Department of Education & Skills is considering this review in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, and the Minister for Education and Skills will be reporting back to Government on issues related to the handling of this litigation in the autumn.
The full action plan is available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution/Themes/Add_info/IRL-ai_en.asp
ENDS.