NO ONE has been prosecuted over the discoveries made by the Ryan
report into child abuse in residential institutions, which was published
two years ago, the Government has revealed.
In a written
submission to the United Nations Committee on Torture, the Government
says 11 files have been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions
in relation to prosecutions on the basis of evidence provided by the
Ryan report.
The DPP has directed no prosecution in eight of these
abuse cases and decisions are still pending on the remaining three case
files.
The report found “sex abuse” was endemic in State-run
children’s institutions over a period of five decades. It was published
on May 20th, 2009, following a 10-year inquiry.
In the wake of the
report’s publication, the then government and President Mary McAleese
said the report could be used to bring perpetrators of child abuse to
justice.
One in Four, the campaign group which works with victims
of abuse, said it was very disappointed at the lack of
prosecutions arising from the report.
“It is very disappointing
and distressing for the survivors of abuse who have been waiting a long
time for justice. One of the main reasons some of the survivors gave
evidence to the Ryan commission was in the hope that it would result in
successful prosecutions of abusers,” said Maeve Lewis, executive
director of One in Four.
Ms Lewis said the lapse in time since the
abuse took place, a lack of witnesses and a lack of evidence probably
hampered the ability of the State to take prosecutions.
No
information is provided in the Government’s submission to the UN on why
no prosecutions have so far been sought in relation to the files sent to
the DPP.
But the submission says a further five files will shortly be
forwarded by the gardaí to the DPP.
A Department of Justice spokesman said it had “nothing to add at this juncture” about the lack of prosecutions.
Speaking
in May 2009, Mrs McAleese said: “Insofar as the Ryan report catalogues
acts of criminal neglect or violence that were perpetrated by people who
are still alive, then I think we have to say, absolutely, without any
fear of contradiction that they remain amenable for those crimes”.
Then minister for justice Dermot Ahern urged people with evidence of abuse to come forward to help secure convictions.
New
evidence has also emerged about delays to the State’s multimillion-euro
plan to respond to the Ryan report and “a lack of clarity” on spending
on measures by the HSE.
The Department of Health has strongly
criticised the HSE for mis-reporting the amount of money it spent in
2010 on the State’s plan to respond to the Ryan report.
In late
2010 the HSE told the department it had spent €14.27 million of its €15
million allocation for responding to the report. In 2011 it told the
department it spent €4.68 million on Ryan report measures.
“It is
important that we have clarity and consistency as to the position with
regard to the application of development funding for this specific
purpose,” wrote Michael Scanlan, secretary general of the Department of
Health, in a letter to HSE chief executive Cathal Magee in March.
The
misreporting of spending occurred because the executive initially
included money spent on recruiting social work staff on an agency basis.
This occurred due to delays in the recruitment of 200 additional
full-time social workers, as promised under the Ryan implementation plan
in 2010.
The plan also promised to provide funding for
counselling services for victims of abuse.
But One in Four said it had to wait until January 2011 – 1½ years after the Ryan
report was published – for the promised funds.
The Children’s
Rights Alliance, a coalition of more than 90 NGOs advocating on behalf
of children, said it was “extremely concerned” about the misreporting
and “disappointed” with the Government’s fulfilment of the Ryan report
implementation plan.