Cork abuse survivor: Any inquiry into abuse in schools must probe State's own accountability

Louise O'Keefe from Bandon, Co Cork, said: '24 years and they still haven’t gotten it right or, in my mind, really attempted to get it right.'

The woman who secured a landmark judgment against Ireland for failing to protect her as a primary school student has said any inquiry into abuse in schools must examine the State’s own accountability.

Cork woman Louise O’Keeffe successfully took the State to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for failing to protect her from the abuse she suffered at primary school in the 1970s in West Cork. 

Speaking after the Taoiseach confirmed that an inquiry will be set up to examine allegations of abuse at Spiritan-run schools including Blackrock College, Ms O’Keeffe said she is worried about “delay tactics”.

My honest straightforward thoughts on it are that whatever they will do, they will string out and it will take ages to do. Secondly, they will absolutely minimize the inquiry as much as they possibly can in order to avoid taking accountability.

It is now 24 years since Ms O'Keeffe secured a criminal conviction against her abuser, Leo Hickey. “24 years and they still haven’t gotten it right or, in my mind, really attempted to get it right." 

Abuse in schools was widespread, and no safeguards were in place to protect students, she added. "To my mind, for the State to do an inquiry, can they really confine it to an order who provided education in one, two, three, or four schools? Can they really confine it to just one [religious] order?

“The curriculum is set by the State, the inspectors inspect the schools on behalf of the State, and the State provides all the rules and regulations for the running of the schools. To me, the responsibility for not just the schools run by the Spiritans but for all schools is held by the State.” 

In 2014, the ECHR found that the State had responsibility for Ms O’Keeffe’s protection from sexual abuse as a young child in school as it had no measures in place that would effectively detect and prevent child abuse in schools. 

Last summer, seven years after the initial judgment, the State launched a revised ex gratia scheme for others who had been abused in schools. Open for applications until July 2023, it requires applicants to have lodged civil proceedings in the courts up to three weeks prior to its relaunch in June 2021.

“They tightened the rules for people making applications to the ex gratia scheme,” Ms. O’Keeffe said. “Anybody coming to terms with what had happened to them and finally realizing why they have all these problems in their life, there is nothing open to them. The ex gratia scheme is totally closed to them.”

Asked whether an inquiry would be limited to schools run by the Spiritans, Taoiseach Michael Martin said: “These are the issues we will have to examine." 

A "module-based" approach might be the most effective and timely type of inquiry, he added. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told RTÉ that he would like to avoid a “highly legalistic in private, statutory investigation that is so wide-ranging and involves so many lawyers that it doesn’t report for five or six years, and that is a risk".

There’s no "perfect option", he said, adding that it’s important to engage with the survivors on the different models.