Joanne Hayes and family to be awarded €2.5m over treatment during Kerry Babies scandal
Joanne Hayes and her family are to be awarded €2.5m in damages over their treatment during the Kerry Babies scandal.
Ms Hayes sued over her wrongful arrest and subsequent charge for the murder of Baby John in 1984.
Ms Hayes, whose reputation was dissected and scrutinised later in the infamous Kerry Babies Tribunal, also sued for damages.
Siblings Kathleen, Mike, and Edmond also sued over their wrongful arrest and charge for the concealment of a baby.
They too sought damages.
The five writs were issued in March 2019, and among those named in them were the Attorney General, the minister of justice, and the Garda Commissioner.
They were issued just over a year after very public apologies by the then taoiseach Leo Varadkar, the then justice minister Charlie Flanagan, and senior gardaí.
Mr Varadkar said in January 2018 that Ms Hayes "evidently is a woman who was very badly treated by our State".
And he said at the time that compensation was "something we can discuss with her representatives in the period ahead".
The compensation deal comes just a day before the family's lawyers are due in court over their bid to have the report of the tribunal of inquiry in the case effectively withdrawn from public record.
It currently sits in the Dáil Library but tomorrow a motion will be presented to have it — in effect — struck out or at least amended to reflect the fact that Joanne and her family were fully exonerated of any wrongdoing.
According to a report in newspaper this morning, Ms Hayes will get the bulk of the money, which sources have since told the is “more than €1m”.
The rest will be divided among her three siblings and Ms Hayes’ daughter Yvonne.
Patrick Mann, the Co Kerry lawyer who has represented Ms Hayes and her family since the Kerry Babies saga started, refused to comment about the deal.
Earlier this week, he said he couldn’t comment as the mediation process was still under way.
A Department of Justice spokesperson said: “In 2018, the Government and the gardaí apologised to Ms Hayes for what happened to her.
“Since then the priority at all times has been to fully respect Ms Hayes’ long-standing request for privacy, and we will continue to do so.”
A public formal apology was issued by gardaí in January 2018 about the investigation into the deaths of a baby found on a beach and another baby found on a farm, both in Co Kerry in 1984.
The baby found on White Strand Beach near Cahersiveen was later named Baby John.
He had been stabbed 28 times.
Ms Hayes, who buried her stillborn son on her family's Abbeydorney farm without telling anybody, was wrongly charged with his murder.
Detectives refused to accept Ms Hayes' offer to show them where she had buried her own baby.
After it was later found and blood tests undertaken, charges against her were eventually dropped.
But she ended up being the subject of the infamous Kerry Babies Tribunal.
The apology she received in January 2018 came after new DNA testing was able to conclusively rule her out as either Baby John's mother or murderer.
A compensation package had previously been offered to the Hayes family but that was turned down because it was too restrictive.
Justice chiefs had proposed to offer Ms Hayes and her family an undisclosed sum for the trauma and distress they have endured in the decades since the scandal.
However, it emerged in January 2019 that the payments were tied to a strict confidentiality clause.
Justice chiefs also insisted the family not only give up their right to any future legal action, but they also had to agree the State would never accept liability.
In addition, the family could never seek a written apology.
As well as all that, Ms Hayes and her siblings would have to make a written application for compensation that would then be assessed by a panel made up of people appointed by the Minister of Justice.
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