Minister O’Sullivan announced that the Government approved her proposal to offer ex-gratia payments to those who initiated legal proceedings in cases of school child sexual abuse against the State but who subsequently discontinued their claims against the State where the circumstances of the claims come within the terms of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment and where the claims were not statute barred prior to the proceedings being discontinued.
The State Claims Agency has reviewed its case files and those of the Chief State Solicitor’s Office and some 210 potential school child sexual abuse cases have been identified. To be eligible for an ex-gratia payment survivors will have to establish that:
- They had instituted legal proceedings against the Minister for Education in respect of school child sexual abuse and that those proceedings were not barred under the Statute of Limitations prior to their being discontinued; and
- They were sexually abused while at school by a primary or post-primary school employee in respect of whom there was a prior complaint of sexual abuse to the school authority (or a school authority in which the employee had previously worked) prior to the issue of the Department of Education child protection guidelines to primary and post-primary schools in 1991/92.
Those who consider that they meet the criteria should contact the State Claims Agency and provide supporting evidence. Where there is a disagreement with the State Claims Agency as to whether the criteria are satisfied, the application may be reviewed by an independent assessor.
Where the State Claims Agency or independent assessor is satisfied that the criteria are met, the Department of Education and Skills will offer an ex-gratia payment up to a maximum of €84,000 plus a specified amount for costs to the survivor. This figure of €84,000 reflects the amount Ms O’Keeffe received from the State including the award from the Criminal Inquiries Compensation Tribunal and the amount the ECtHR decided the State should pay to her.
As this litigation was at various stages of progression and all of the cases within this category were discontinued against the State prior to a Court hearing, it is not possible to determine the number of survivors who are likely to satisfy the qualifying criteria for an ex-gratia payment. It is expected that there will be cases that will not satisfy the criteria.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “I am pleased that the Government has agreed to my proposal to treat those survivors who discontinued their proceedings in a similar fashion to those survivors whose cases are continuing against the State. While there is no legal obligation on the State to address the situation of these survivors, I believe that the approach adopted is fair and balanced in addressing the position of these survivors.”
As with the current and future litigation, the Minister said that in making these ex-gratia offers the State is not covering the liability of the perpetrators, school patrons or other Co-Defendants. In the O’Keeffe case, no claim was made against the school manager or patron.
Similarly, these arrangements only concern those cases of school child sexual abuse where there was a prior complaint about the teacher concerned to school authorities as these were the circumstances on which the ECtHR judgment was based. None of the current child protection architecture applying to schools was in place in 1973, when Louise O’Keeffe suffered horrendous sexual abuse.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “There was a complaint to the school authorities in Ms O’Keeffe’s case which was not acted upon. The measures being taken are in response to the ECtHR judgment that the State failed in its Convention obligations to have effective mechanisms for the detection and reporting of child sexual abuse in the early 1970s when Ms O’Keeffe was abused.”
The Minister re-iterated her apology to all those who were sexually abused as school children for the horrific abuse which was inflicted upon them, and for our collective failure to protect them.
She welcomed the recent passing of the Teaching Council (Amendment) Bill, 2015 by both Houses of the Oireachtas, which introduces further additional measures to enhance child protection in the education sector and confirmed her commitment to continuing collaboration with her Cabinet colleagues to ensure effective responsive systems of child protection both in schools and more generally.
An updated report on the State’s implementation of the ECtHR judgment is being lodged with the Council of Europe and is available on the Department’s website- http://www.education.ie/en/Learners/Information/Former-Residents-of-Industrial-Schools/Updated-Action-Plan-July-2015.pdf
ENDS