THIS MONTH sees the winding down of the Granada Institute which treats people who have sexually abused children.
The
institute was opened in Shankill, Co Dublin, by the St John of God
Brothers following a meeting between its then provincial and a
deputation from the Irish Bishops Conference in 1994.
That was the year
in which Fr Brendan Smyth was arrested and jailed in Northern Ireland
and when an Irish government fell due to related events.
Initially
at the institute the great majority (more than 90 per cent) of people
treated were Catholic clergy facing allegations of child sex abuse or
with convictions for same. In more recent years, however, between 80 per
cent and 90 per cent of people treated there have not been clergy.
Also
in recent years, referrals from the HSE accounted for 25 per cent of
those treated there, with the remainder coming through the criminal
justice system, via solicitors, doctors and with some self referrals. In
all an estimated 1,800 people have been treated at the institute since
it opened in 1994.
In the 10-year period from 1999 to 2009
accumulated losses at the institute amounted to €2 million, a figure
which was met by the St John of God congregation, as have continuing
deficits since.
Twenty-five of the 46 priests against whom
allegations of child sex abuse had been made in the Dublin archdiocese
between 1975 and 2004, and who were investigated by the Murphy
commission, were treated there.
Murphy was frequently critical of the
institute in its findings, describing the institute’s report on Fr
Terentius as “seriously deficient in many respects”.
The
commission “found it very difficult to understand how Granada can
categorically state that Fr Laurentius was not involved in child sexual
abuse when there is evidence that he admitted to such abuse while in
Jemez Springs and when there are two complaints from 16/17-year-olds in
Ireland.”
It expressed itself “astonished” at another finding of the
institute’s in relation to this same
priest.
It further queried
how it arrived at a finding in relation to Fr Edmondus, who abused Marie
Collins as a child.
“It is not at all clear how Granada could have
known this other than by accepting what they were told by Fr Edmondus,”
it said.
In May 2010, and in response to the Murphy commission
criticisms, the board at the institute commissioned an independent
review of its services.
It was conducted by social worker Kieran
McGrath, who was chairman; Bríd Clarke, who was a member of the Kilkenny
incest investigation team in 1993; and Dr Paul McCarthy, who was
nominated by the HSE and who had been clinical director of child and
adolescent psychiatric services at the Eastern Health Board for 30
years.
Their report, published last October, found there had been
“very positive feedback” about the institute from prison and
probationary services who “greatly valued” access to its expertise.
Among
its concerns, however, was “inconsistency in clinical practice by some
Granada Institute staff” which “varied in worrying ways”.
There was also
“an over-readiness to allocate a ‘low-risk’ designation to a client,
without taking all available information into account”.