Fergus Finlay: The Grace case commission is over — but justice never even began for Fran

Ending the Grace inquiry’s second phase abandons survivors, ignores whistleblowers, and leaves truth buried beneath bureaucracy and silence

Fran is a survivor of abuse. Her family, and not the State, is helping her to rebuild her life. File photo

The Farrelly Commission of Investigation into the Grace case was supposed to have two phases. The first was to enquire into what happened to Grace in the house of a so-called foster carer. The second was to find out what happened to the other children. The government has decided not to proceed with the second phase at all, and instead to wind the whole thing up.

On balance I think that’s the right decision. The idea of sending another 10 lawyers to spend another 10 years and another €10 million to produce another incomprehensible and virtually unreadable 2,000 page report would do no justice to hurt and betrayed people. The truth is that in the vast majority of cases the placements in that house were of very short duration and the children came to no harm. Grace and a couple of others did.