Grace: TD calls for Farrelly Commission to appear before Oireachtas

Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness said: 'The question for this Dáil is, are we going to allow this report to sit?'

Grace is the pseudonym of a woman now in her 40s, who has been in the care of the State all her life. Grace has profound intellectual disabilities and is non-verbal. Grace resided with Family X between the ages of 10 and 30, a period spanning the year 1989 until her move to residential care in 2009. File photo

The commission which published a report into the Grace case must appear before the Oireachtas, a government TD has said.

Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness had been deeply critical of the Farrelly Commission report when it was published two weeks ago, but a revelation this week from the solicitors who acted for the woman has led to even further demands that the commission explain its findings to TDs.

Grace is the pseudonym of a woman now in her 40s, who has been in the care of the State all her life. Grace has profound intellectual disabilities and is non-verbal. Grace resided with Family X between the ages of 10 and 30, a period spanning the year 1989 until her move to residential care in 2009.

The commission was established in 2017 to investigate the case and delivered its report two weeks ago, finding a "fundamental failure" by the South Eastern Health Board and the HSE in their duty of care to a severely intellectually disabled young woman. However, it also concluded that it is "not satisfied" that the level of evidence was such to fully establish sexual, emotional, or physical abuse of Grace during her time in the foster home in the south east of the country.

In the Dáil on Thursday, 90 minutes of statements on the report had been arranged, with Mr McGuinness - a member of the Dáil committee which had originally brought the case to public attention - saying that minister for children Norma Foley "could not run" from the case.

“The question for this Dáil is, are we going to allow this report to sit? Are we going to walk out of this chamber and say, well, we’ve heard from everyone, now that’s it. I don’t think we should do that. We should pressurise the government to ensure that this case is fully dealt with."

Mr McGuinness outlined details around the other 47 children who had been housed with Family X.

“I will not forget them,” he said.

“The reports tell you how many [children] in each year were in that house. The reports tell you in a factual way, how the house was constructed, where these people lived in out-houses. 

One child was kept under the stairs and was sexually abused. Another woman described how her daughter was sexually abused.

“She describes it like this, ‘she would take off her clothes, she would put herself into a position which was a sexualised position, and that would not have been done by a non-verbal, emotionally and mentally challenged person’.”

In an extraordinary step earlier this week, the general solicitor for minors and wards of court, Marie-Claire Butler, who is the High Court-appointed committee for Grace and is responsible for Grace's legal, personal, and financial affairs, claimed that she had prepared "considerable and extensive" submissions which were not included in the report.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that this was an unprecedented statement which showed Grace had been "failed again".

In her statement, Ms Foley said that she had received correspondence yesterday from the Commission of Investigation, stating that it had “fully discharged its obligations under Section 34 of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004″.

“The commission further confirmed its view that all steps were duly taken in considering submissions received, including those made on behalf of Grace."