IRELAND
Irish Times
Carl O’Brien
Just six of out more than 350 cases of alleged sexual abuse in schools have been settled by the State under a State compensation scheme. The scheme was set up last year after Louise O’Keeffe won her case in January 2014 in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), following a 20-year legal battle.
The court ruled that the State was liable for abuse carried out by Ms O’Keeffe’s teacher at a national school in west Cork in the 1970s, when she was eight years old. The State’s compensation scheme applies to abuse that took place before 1991, when child-protection measures were introduced, subject to the statute of limitation.
Ms O’Keeffe has strongly criticised the scope of the compensation scheme, accusing the State of trying to minimise its legal responsibility. She said the small number of cases processed so far was a sign of the State’s narrow interpretation of the law. This includes a condition that survivors of abuse can qualify only where it is shown that the school authorities failed to take action in response to a complaint of abuse.
“There is no legal basis for suggesting that it is necessary to establish a prior sexual abuse, before one can succeed. This is simply not the law,” she said. “This has been done opportunistically to minimise the liability of the State to these unfortunate victims. I find that deplorable and disheartening.”
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