Abuse victims and the State: who to blame

YOUR columnist Fergus Finlay (Irish Examiner, March 27) cited the case of a national school pupil who had been abused by her school principal.

He argued that as the teacher was paid by the State, he was a public servant. He complained that despite this, the State had argued successfully in court that it had no responsibility for this public servant.

Mr Finlay accused the State of setting about punishing the former pupil for daring to suggest it had some responsibility for the terrible things a public servant had done to her.

The basis for that accusation was that the State was pursuing the person who brought the case for costs.

Even more disgracefully, according to Mr Finlay, all such people who were abused in the past are to be denied any form of redress by the State and threatened with financial ruin if they seek to take a case. Your columnist is not the only one to draw attention to these issues since they were also covered by a recent RTÉ Prime Time programme.

It is difficult to disagree with Mr Finlay’s complaints about “the power of the State being used against its own vulnerable citizens”. My only reservation about his column, and the Prime Time programme, is the use of the impersonal term ‘the State’.

The decisions to pursue these vulnerable people through the courts and to threaten them with bankruptcy were made by the department over which an elected minister, Mary Hanafin, exercises power on our behalf.

Anthony Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13