Laffoy resignation - Government guilty of hypocrisy

The reticence on the part of the Government to make public the letter of resignation from Ms Justice Mary Laffoy as chairperson of the commission investigating child abuse, became very clear yesterday and for the reason which most people presumed.

It put the blame for her decision to resign unequivocally on the Government’s lack of co-operation and interference.

Categorically, she said bluntly, among other things, that a range of factors over which the commission had no control had “together produced a real and pervasive sense of powerlessness”.

In an indictment of the Government’s shamefully hypocritical approach to the scandal of child abuse, in retrospect, it seems to Ms Justice Laffoy that since its establishment, the commission had never been properly allowed by the Government to fulfil satisfactorily the functions conferred on it by the Oireachtas.

That, succinctly, puts into relief Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s quality of truth when he blamed her resignation on a heavy caseload because of the number of allegations of abuse and numerous legal challenges from alleged abusers, and merely adding that there were “tensions” between Ms Justice Laffoy and the Government.

It is quite obvious now why the Government stubbornly resisted calls from the Opposition to publish her letter of resignation, while at the same time allowing Education Minister Noel Dempsey to take the criticism that followed, including calls for his resignation.

The public might still be in the dark about the contents of the letter were it not published in a newspaper yesterday, thereby revealing the ignominious treatment she and the commission were subjected to by a government utterly indifferent to the scandalous plight of those victims it was intended to serve.

When the Laffoy Commission was established in mid-1999 to address the appalling incidence of decades of child sexual abuse in the state’s industrial schools, it was intended to be a forum for victims to relate their horrific stories. Two other functions were to fully investigate all allegations of abuse it received and to publish a report on its findings.

The commission was bedevilled by various institutions of Church and State who sought to mitigate or obscure the onus on them by putting their own interests first.

The Government, by its disingenuous attitude to such a crucial issue of human misery and trauma, has rendered those concerned an unpardonable injustice.

The chaos that was brought about in this instance must give rise to serious questioning as to the method of inquiry by which this country addresses matters of grave public concern.