Government accused of failing Grace abuse victims amid backlash over Farrelly report findings

Fianna Fáil TD  John McGuinness said the Government needs to deal with the reality of life for those who have been abused. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins

The Government has been accused by one of its own TDs, John McGuinness, of "failing the children of the State who are now adults” over its handling of the Grace case.

His comments come after the Irish Examiner revealed for the first time on Tuesday, details of how the family of Fran O’Keeffe first raised concerns about the Waterford based X foster family and what the O'Keeffes went through giving evidence to the Farrelly Commission.

Fran O’Keeffe and 'Grace' have profound disabilities and both women shared a room at the home of the X family who were accused of sexually abusing children.

Fran, who is now 45 years old, communicated with her mother in December 1992 that she was being abused, but the Farrelly Commission, in its final report into the Grace case published last month, said it found no evidence of sexual abuse of either woman.

Fran O’Keeffe, centre, with her mum Nuala and sister Molly. The family waived their anonymity recently to talk about their concerns to 'Irish Examiner' reporter and photographer/videographer Chani Anderson. See link below

Mr McGuinness said there has been “no accountability and no transparency” since the publication of the Farrelly report.

“The system is being protected instead of the people being abused,” he said.

“We not only failed the children of the State when they were young, we are failing them again as adults.

They put out a whitewash of a report and the people of Ireland will not accept it. There are people alive who know what happened. The victims are the only ones coming forward. Everyone else is hiding behind solicitors.

He said the government needs to deal with the reality of life for those who have been abused.

“What the O’Keeffe family is describing about what happened in the commission of inquiry is the same as others that were there, they felt bullied harassed and intimidated.

“They were the people coming forward with the grievance, yet they were treated like they did something wrong."

He said Fran’s story is similar to Grace. “It is quite clear that even though they are both non-verbal they have communicated what happened.

“I believe there is truth in what they say, and the Government will be trying to close this down on Wednesday (when the matter is to be raised in the Dáil) but I am calling for a proper investigation, I don’t want millions spent on this but questions remain unanswered, families remain very dissatisfied not only that their stories weren’t heard, but that they got no resolution over what faced their child.”