Quinn and agencies set to consider rights ruling in detail

The legal and other ramifications of the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the State will have to be considered in detail by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and other government agencies.

With implications for the role and responsibilities of the State in schools, but also potentially in other areas of public service, there were numerous calls for immediate action.

But Mr Quinn said the lengthy judgment would have to be sifted through in detail before the implications, and any necessary actions could be determined by the Government.

Asked about Louise O’Keeffe’s expectation of an apology from the State, he said he very much sympathises with what she has gone through but he has to take advice on the matter.

“That’s not to say that I don’t in any way empathise with, relate to and understand the difficult journey that she has now completed in terms of getting the judgment.”

Ms O’Keeffe and her solicitor Ernest Cantillon said a statutory framework has to be put in place to protect children from abuse in schools, including mandatory reporting and legislation underpinning the requirement of primary schools to teach the Stay Safe programme, which helps pupils recognise and report abuse.

The Department of Education said all primary schools fully implement Stay Safe, and the State has put in place robust child protection measures, with a central role for the recently established Child and Family Agency.

“All schools are required to adhere to child protection procedures which give direction and guidance to school authorities and school personnel in the implementation of Children First when dealing with allegations or suspicions of child abuse,” it said.

The question of how to deal with cases previously taken against the minister or his predecessors by victims of abuse in schools will be one of those to be considered by the Government and its legal advisers.

But Maeve Lewis, director of abuse survivors’ group One-In-Four, said it has a moral duty to put special procedures or law in place for people bullied into dropping cases against the State after Ms O’Keeffe’s defeat in the Supreme Court.

“They received a very threatening letter from the State threatening to pursue them with full rigour for all costs if they didn’t drop their costs. It has been reprehensible of the State to pursue this case in the first place and now they have a chance perhaps to make amends for that to all the other people who have been waiting for this judgment.”

Amnesty International said Ms O’Keeffe has done society a huge service through her courage and determination, and it hopes the Government reflect carefully on what the ruling means for how it deals with others seeking justice for abuse suffered as children.