Government to enter mediation with women who suffered abuse at Dunderrow National School

Louise O’Keeffe fought a 15-year-long battle to get civil redress for the sexual abuse she suffered at Dunderrow Primary School in Co Cork. Picture: Michael Mac Sweeeney/Provision

The Government has agreed to mediation with women who suffered abuse in a Cork school in the 1960s and 1970s.

Education minister Hildegarde Naughton updated Cabinet on Tuesday, confirming the Government would enter into mediation with 19 women, represented by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, who were abused at Dunderrow National School.

In a memo to Government, it was confirmed there would be a formal response to the request this week by the Department of Education.

In 1998, disgraced principal Leo Hickey was charged with historic abuse against pupils, after pleading guilty to 21 sample counts from 387 charges of sexually abusing 21 girls at Dunderrow National School in Co Cork in the 1960s and 1970s.

Meanwhile, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan updated Cabinet that an extension of temporary protection for Ukrainian refugees was likely to be agreed at EU level. 

This will extend protection status to March 2028, beyond the expected expiry date of March 2027.

While no Cabinet decision on the matter was taken, a spokesperson said they expected ministers would work alongside EU partners on the matter.

Elsewhere, a Government spokesperson confirmed that culture minister Patrick O’Donovan is “stable” and recovering with family, after he became unwell in Brussels last week.

“His condition, I would describe as stable, but it requires medical management, treatment, and care to get him back to full health,” the spokesperson said.

Mr O’Donovan did not attend Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. 

He returned to Ireland last Friday aboard the Government jet.

The Limerick TD has previously spoken about his health and epilepsy, telling the Irish Examiner that he received his epilepsy diagnosis more than a decade ago.

He added that doctors continuously “disputed” this.

However, after collapsing in the Dáil in June 2023, he was admitted to the monitoring unit in Beaumont Hospital, where his neurologist diagnosed him with deep frontal lobe epilepsy.

On the day he got his diagnosis, it felt like “the bottom had fallen out of my world”, he said.