Response to abuses must be decisive - Grace foster abuse and Tuam

THE decision by Finian McGrath, minister of state with responsibility for disabilities, to scrap the terms of reference for the inquiry into the case of the woman known as ‘Grace’ is indicative of a Government confused, bewildered and in disarray in attempting to deal comprehensively with historic and ongoing ill-treatment of our most vulnerable citizens.

The decision comes within days of those terms being agreed at Cabinet. Initially, the inquiry was to focus on what happened to the young woman with intellectual disabilities who was left in a foster home in the southeast for almost 20 years, despite sexual abuse allegations.

Now that investigation is to be widened after families of other residents of the foster home expressed concerns that their cases would not be examined properly by an inquiry with such a narrow focus. Fergus Finlay, CEO of the children’s charity Barnardos, was outraged, saying that, hurt and abused as she was, Grace was not alone.