Probe into claims of abuse in foster family

A senior counsel-led State inquiry into allegations up to 40 severely disabled children and young adults were physically and sexually abused by a foster family for at least two decades is set to be launched by the Department of Health.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar and minister of state with responsibility for disability services Kathleen Lynch are to open the inquiry due to fears that what happened was covered up by health service managers.

The inquiry relates to claims up to 40 children and young adults with severe intellectual disabilities were abused at a Waterford foster home from at least 1992 until 2008, and whether health service managers adequately addressed the scandal.

Whistle-blowers have said that when officials were first made aware of the claims — which include repeated rapes and claims some victims were forced to live in cubby holes beneath the stairs and in out-houses — in 1992, vulnerable children had already been placed with the family for a decade.

In 1995, officials were ordered by senior social workers to stop placing people with the family.

However, one woman was left with the family for 13 more years, allegedly being subjected to repeated rapes which have resulted in life-long internal injuries.

Unknown to health service officials, other placements also came through the Brothers of Charity and independently of organisations. The family include a couple and a younger relative, two of whom have died. The case was examined in the mid-90s by former senior health service officials without a tender process.

After concerns were raised again in 2009, the HSE launched a fresh €100,000 report. However, despite concluding in 2012, it has not been published due to a garda investigation.

At an April 23 Dáil public accounts committee meeting with the HSE, Fine Gael TD John Deasy, who has pushed for an investigation, said the case is the “worst I have heard in 16 years as a public representative”.

Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness claimed what happened bears all the hallmarks of a cover-up, as some in charge of the sector have since been promoted, an allegation the HSE rejected.

The Department of Health confirmed last night that after PAC calls for a “statutory commission of investigation”, Mr Varadkar and Ms Lynch have appointed “a senior counsel to outline and examine the procurement process in commissioning the two [HSE] reviews and the approach taken in conducting the exercises”.