Victims needed State apology, Ahern tells inquiry

PEOPLE who were abused in institutions needed to hear the State say it was sorry because the State had let them down, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

What happened to children in institutionalised care was unjustified, Mr Ahern told the Commission to

Inquire into Child Abuse. He said the State should have done better.

Mr Ahern said he made the public apology to victims on May 11, 1999 because survivors of child abuse had their lives shattered by terrible wrongs perpetrated upon them while they were in institutions regulated and supervised by the State.

“The test of a true democracy is how its treats its weakest and most vulnerable members,” he declared.

Mr Ahern said he became aware of the abuse through media reports in the mid to late 1990s and through meeting victims who struck him as being entirely genuine.

“These were decent, honourable people who had suffered and they deserved the best apology the State could give,” he said.

The question of abuse was raised at Cabinet level in March 1998 by the then Minister of Education, Micheál Martin, now Minister for Health.

While the working group established afterwards proposed a package of measures for victims, it did not mention the State apologising.

Mr Ahern said both he and Mr Martin felt the victims’ hurt was not going to go away unless the State said sorry.

The victims he met were still hurt about what had happened 20, 30 and even 40 years ago, and he vividly recalled a meeting where every victim was crying.

“It was not a pretty sight,” he said.

While there were reasons given, they were not justifiable. While times were different then, the Government felt a section of the community had been exposed in a way that affected their lives, Mr Ahern said.

As soon as the apology was given and, hopefully, accepted, the next step was to allow victims an opportunity to tell their story through the commission.

Mr Ahern said the legislation to set up the commission had gone through the Houses of the Oireachtas “quicker than quick”.

The Government would also have to move ahead with establishing the redress scheme.

He said he was aware victims were involved in litigation and were being put through a horrendous adversarial process.

“This was not the motivation behind the apology. The Government did not want them to be involved in such a torturous experience, it wanted them to tell their story to the commission and then have access to a redress scheme.”

One in Four director Colm O’Gorman was glad Mr Ahern had said survivors were decent, honest people and hoped his testimony established a basis for the commission to work from.

John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) said those who met Mr Ahern wanted justice. There were many survivors like him who wanted to see their perpetrators punished but had their cases refused by the DPP.