Ivana Bacik: Demands State Apology After Bill Kenneally Report

Margaret Taoiseach, before I begin my thoughts are with the man who remains seriously injured in hospital and with his family following Monday's brutal knife attack in North Belfast. I also want to condemn the appalling violence perpetrated against Northern Ireland's migrant communities overnight and to commend the work of the emergency services in response. Taoiseach, we must all condemn those who seek to exploit any awful incident in order to target ethnic minority and immigrant communities. We saw it here during the Dublin riots in November 2023 and all of us have a responsibility to unite against racism and against violence. Taoiseach, I want to raise with you the final report of the South East Independent Commission of Investigation, the report into the depraved systemic sexual abuse of children by the paedophile Bill Keneally which was published yesterday. The details set out in the report are nothing short of horrendous. So many young lives destroyed by his vile and heinous crimes. I want to pay tribute to all the survivors. What they endured is the stuff of nightmares. Bill Keneally tortured young boys over many years in unfathomable ways. He exploited his position of authority to abuse them. He ensured their silence through blackmail and intimidation. When some of his young victims found the courage to report him, their bravery was met with inertia and cover-up by the Gardaí and by those who should have been protecting them, whose duty was to protect them. For far too long they were not protected. The report is unequivocal. There was a clear dereliction of duty by senior Gardaí in dealing with Keneally's disgusting crimes. Had proper procedures been followed, had the children been taken seriously, more children could have been protected from suffering at the hands of Bill Keneally. But Taoiseach, no institution comes out of the report well. Not the Gardaí, not the health authorities, not sporting bodies, not Fianna Fáil, not the Catholic Church. It now falls to you and the government to respond. I'm still reading the report as I know we all are, it's very detailed, but we know it makes a number of important recommendations. It recommends in particular an urgent review of the need to introduce a criminal offence of misconduct in public office and that particularly follows the failure of former Fianna Fáil deputy Brendan Keneally to contact authorities after he became aware of his cousin's campaign of abuse in 2001. We understand that you will offer a state apology to Bill Keneally's victims and Taoiseach, that's very welcome, but survivors deserve clarity about when that will happen. After the ordeal they have suffered, the minimum these men deserve is your respect. And I regret to say that Minister O'Callaghan's decision to share this 400-page report with survivors so close to publication did not show sufficient respect, as survivors have said, and we've seen this before. Survivors of mother and baby homes forced to learn key findings of that report through the media. We understand survivors of Keneally's vile crimes given only 24 hours to digest the report before its findings were all over the news. So Taoiseach, will you do right by Bill Keneally's survivors? Will you engage respectfully and directly with them? Will you commence the process of introducing that crucial new offence? And will you implement the other recommendations of the report into his crimes? Thank you Deputy Taoiseach. First of all I want to say that without equivocation that the crimes committed by Bill Keneally were absolutely horrific over a prolonged period of time and caused immense trauma and suffering to many, many people and families. And I'm reading through the report like yourself, and I think the judge, Michael White, has been very clear in terms of his finding the central finding of a failure and a dereliction of duty in relation to the way on Garda Síochána dealt with this, particularly in 1987 when the perpetrator, Bill Keneally himself, was in the Garda station, almost was acknowledging culpability in respect of this and the failure to do things properly in terms of taking statements and perhaps sending it to the DPP at the time. And there's wider issues as to why the Garda was not in a position to do that and so forth, but I'm not going to go through that here. But that, in my view, and also some failings in terms of the Help Board at the time, demands a state apology. That is my clear reading so far, that there is no equivocation by the Commission in terms of that central conclusion in respect of the failure to deal with this properly and comprehensively at the time, even by the standards of the day. And the report goes into the contrast between which it describes as profound in terms of the framework and edifice we have in place today in terms of child protection and understanding and so on like that, but even by the standards of the late 1980s, it's not acceptable. The Commission is saying it's absolutely not acceptable. And also, then also, the behaviour of others and the former public representatives in terms of the former TD Brendan Keeley at the time, the Commission is very clear that it fell below the standards that one would expect. I think the recommendation that has been made, it would seem to me, pertains to the failure of Angora Tshikana and in terms of that central failure to prosecute, to do the very, what one would consider to be the basic investigative response required to deal with the facts and the position as was then known at the time. And then failures to alert others, failures to alert the Viking Basketball Club by people who knew. Failure to, by the way, just to be very straight, failure to notify the Fianna Fáil party locally. That's very clear in the report. Thank you Taoiseach. At that time, by those who knew also. Thank you. And it's a damning report in that respect and we will follow through and we would hope to arrange time in the House to have a proper consideration. Deputy Bakshi. Well I thank you for the considered response Taoiseach and like you I want to commend the judge Michael White for all his work and for taking on this report and giving us such a comprehensive picture and I absolutely agree we need a debate in this house once we've had time to digest the full findings of the report. Unfortunately however, there's been so many of these situations where we've seen paedophilia covered up, even facilitated by state agencies, where we've seen failures to support and protect victims and survivors. I'm thinking of survivors of Eamon Cook, survivors of industrial schools. I'm thinking of the brave individuals who came forward after the, about the Black Rock Boys. And I'm thinking of the survivors of Michael Shine and Deputy Jed Nash has been speaking out on behalf of survivors in that appalling situation. And I know the scoping inquiry is due to report soon. I know we've been looking for a public inquiry into the litany of failure there in respect of victims. And the state must clearly do better and I know as you've said there are better procedures in place now but we still can do more. On the 25th of June in this house we'll be putting forward Labour's bill to ensure that where religious orders have colluded in cover-up, that they can be pursued in order to facilitate the payment of redress to victims. This is another step in ensuring... Taoiseach, please respond. I think we just need to be, I think we need to let the report speak for itself. It doesn't have a finding of a cover-up. It doesn't have a finding of a conspiracy and it doesn't have a finding of collusion. I think we have to be true to the report of the Commission. But it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty and the need to reform the law in that respect which the Minister will be now pursuing with the Law Reform Commission as recommended by the Commission. And yes we can do better. I mean we spent, the state has initiated quite a range of inquiries as you iterated going back to the industrial schools. We have an scoping inquiry underway in terms of victims of Michael Cheyne and the Minister for Health is working on that and others at the moment also, other inquiries. But also have to make sure that state authorities are fully and that every official and everybody is aware of all the responsibilities that people have in respect of any reporting and the necessity to report. Thank you Taoiseach. In the first instance, in my view, bears re-articulation. Any abuse allegations should be reported to the Guardian. Deputy Ruth Coppinder.