A report into more than 30 years of abuse perpetrated by Brothers of Charity on children with intellectual disabilities which was supposed to take eight months to complete, ended up taking eight years.All but one member of the original report team had quit after two years, while there were arguments over resources and the six-member team did not have the necessary skills or supports required.
The inquiry was slammed as "unsatisfactory and chaotic", by opposition spokesman Alan Shatter, while Inclusion Ireland said the delay was unacceptable and had added to the pain and suffering of those abused.
The damning report, which was eventually published in December 2007, outlined a nightmare of physical and sexual abuse endured by children at the Holy Family Special School and Woodlands Centre at Renmore in Galway and at the Kilcornan Centre for young adults in Clarenbridge between 1965 and 1988.
At the time it was published, the Brothers of Charity acknowledged the "awfulness" of the abuse -- it included rape and flogging -- and offered sincere apologies to all those who had suffered.
At the launch of the report in December 2007, the HSE National Director for Primary, Community and Continuing Care, Laverne McGuinness, agreed that there had been an undue delay in completing its findings -- the inquiry team had been established by the Western Health Board in April, 1999.
The Department of Health and Children ordered an independent report into the causes of the delay in publishing the findings.
Yesterday that report was published by Junior Minister at the Department of Health and Children, John Moloney. It was drawn up out by John Hynes, former Secretary General of the Dept of Social and Family Affairs.
Timescale
Mr Hynes' report notes that the six-person inquiry team was headed up by chairperson, Dr Elizabeth Healy and that a short timescale was envisaged for the completion of the report. The chairperson stated that a completion deadline of November 30, 1999 had been indicated to her at preliminary meetings.
But because of various difficulties, including the non-statutory nature of the inquiry which meant that witnesses could not be compelled to give evidence, the work of the inquiry dragged on into 2001.
By that time the other five inquiry team members had left to either return to their own posts within the WHB, or for other reasons, and none was replaced. Dr Healy now found herself alone in attempting to bring the report to finality.
Mr Hynes says in his report: "The chair clearly found the process of drafting the report on her own difficult. She has submitted to me in the context of this review that the enormous tasks of completing the report single-handed was always too big a task for any single individual to achieve within any reasonable period".
The HSE came into being on January 1, 2005 and a year later, Dr Healy left on extended leave. She indicated that she would not be continuing with the report as she found the imposition of a new deadline by the HSE for the submission of the final report to be unachievable.
The former Chief Inspector of Social Services in Northern Ireland, Dr Kevin McCoy,was then commissioned to bring the report to completion.
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(Source: II)