Children with disabilities experienced sexual abuse at a much higher rate than children without a disability, the Dáil heard as it debated historical child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools.
Minister of State for Special Education and Inclusion Michael Moynihan said the scoping inquiry leading to the newly established Commission of Investigation revealed the records of religious orders showed “some 528 allegations of historical child sexual abuse across 17 special schools in respect of 190 alleged abusers”.
The initial scoping inquiry was told of some 2,395 allegations of historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders. It was told it involved 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools countrywide between 1927 to 2013.
The Minister of State said “many families entrusted the care of their children into these communities” and “this is unlikely to be the full extent of the historical abuse in special schools”.
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It was “truly appalling that the additional vulnerabilities of children in special schools could be so exploited and there has to be accountability”, Mr Moynihan said.
He was speaking during a debate on the motion to approve the draft order on the Commission of Investigation on the handling of historical child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools.
Sinn Féin TD Pat Buckley said he had lost many friends who had been abused and it took more than 20 years to find out what happened.
“I lost two friends in primary school where the abuse started and I wasn’t aware of it.” He said “people ran away from school, came back, qualified as solicitors and everything, and unfortunately ended their lives”.
He said some of the people who are responsible “are still alive, some of the principals and vice-principals, Christian Brothers and lay teachers”.
Labour’s Ciarán Ahern said the Government and other institutions of power “have excelled in the past at covering up the reality of child sexual abuse”.
“We need only look at the Carrigan report in 1931 to see the DNA of denial that blighted child protection in Ireland from the State’s foundation”.
The Dublin South-West TD said the Carrigan committee was appointed in 1930 and held 17 sessions. One witness, the police commissioner of the time, “highlighted an alarming amount of sexual crime, increasing yearly, a feature of which was the large number of cases of criminal interference with girls and children from 16 years and downwards, many children under 10 years of age”.
He said the police commissioner believed that less than 15 per cent of sexual crime was being prosecuted but government chose not to publish the report.
Minister for Education Helen McEntee thanked “every single survivor for their bravery, whether they were in a position to come forward or not”.
She also thanked the late Mark Ryan and his brother David who came forward for the RTÉ documentary Blackrock Boys, after which the Government established a scoping inquiry.
In an address to survivors she said: “I am truly sorry for what was done to you and the devastating impacts it had on your lives, but I want to thank each and every person for their bravery.”
