Joe McHugh: State failed to protect victims of sexual abuse

Education Minister Joe McHugh has admitted the State failed to protect victims of sexual abuse and that its compensation scheme "did not work".

Mr McHugh conceded there are serious problems when a compensation system ignores any victims and said he has spoken with attorney general Seamus Wolfe about changing the existing scheme as soon as possible.

On Monday, a report by retired High Court judge Iarfhlaith O'Neill issued a report which found the State had misinterpreted a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which resulted in victims of child sexual abuse denied access to a redress scheme. He found the requirement on survivors to provide evidence of a prior complaint made against an abuser was "inherently illogical".

The ECHR ruling was in response to 13 individual cases, which were turned down for compensation from the State for differing reasons, despite proof they suffered historic child sexual abuse while in primary schools, in other institutions and at home.

On Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar apologised in the Dáil to the victims:

On behalf of the State I want to apologise to people who were sexually abused when they were children in our day schools before 1992 and for the State's delay thereafter in acknowledging that it had a responsibility to protect them.

Minister McHugh repeated the apology today, saying the State has failed victims of horrific child sexual abuse crimes and must act to address the shortfalls now.

"People in this position have been wronged. They have been let down and have had false dawns. A scheme presented to them in the form of the ex gratia scheme was unworkable.

There is no question about what went wrong.

"There is no justification in my standing up on behalf of the State to say we tried our best but failed. That is what happened. We failed as a State and as a society. I will stand over my words. I am determined to get this right," he said.

Mr McHugh said he has met with Mr Wolfe in recent days to examine how existing compensation schemes can be changed, and that he hopes this can happen in the near future.

Acknowledging the work that now needs to take place, he added: "It is the least we can do."

However, director of the Child Law Clinic at UCC Conor O'Mahony said the only reason to seek advice from the Attorney General "is to try and find a way to limit the number of payments that will be made".