Survivors of sexual abuse have told Prime Time that a scoping inquiry report into sexual abuse at schools run by religious orders has given credibility to their stories and those of other survivors.
Speaking with Prime Time's Miriam O’Callaghan shortly after the scoping report spanning several decades was made public by the Government, Michael Mansfield, Corneilius Crowley, and Mark-Vincent Healy said the report led them to be optimistic.
However, concerns were also raised about the amount of time a statutory inquiry could take.
The report found that there were 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse in respect of 308 schools recorded by the religious orders that ran those schools. The allegations were made in respect of 884 distinct alleged abusers.
Michael Mansfield was sexually abused at Willow Park and Blackrock College in Dublin. He took a case against the Spiritan's schools with Mark and David Ryan, who featured in RTÉ's Doc on One programme 'Blackrock Boys’.
He told Miriam O’Callaghan that the report gave him a renewed sense of determination to hold those responsible to account.
"Today really has been a catapult moment for me. It has taken what has happened when I was about 12 years of age and I've lived with all my life, and for so many other young men and women as well. But it's given it credibility," Mr Mansfield told Prime Time.
"Today really coalesces the support and really gives us a lot more energy to go forward and make sure that we make the most of this, get to get to the bottom of what's happened, and make sure that we can find a way to make the school system safer in the future."
Mr Mansfield was sexually abused by Fr Tom O’Byrne at Willow Park and later in Blackrock College. "It was a very painful time for me, a time I really felt I had nowhere to go in terms of telling my story, and had to figure out a way on my own, had to deal with it was, it took a long time to come to terms of it," Mr Mansfield said.
Fr O’Byrne was charged by the Director of Public Prosecutions with 37 offences arising out of sexual abuse. In 2007, the courts decided that the criminal case against him should be halted. Fr O’Byrne died in 2010, but never faced trial.
Corneilius Crowley, was abused in boarding schools he attended between ages five and 17, as a ward of court. Mr Crowley said the abuse he suffered at school had a profound impact on his life.
"I've been depressed, I've been homeless, I've been on drugs. It's been a mess, because I have not been able to trust anyone or trust myself, and I internalise it all as there was something wrong with me. And the truth is, there was nothing wrong with me," Mr Crowley told Prime Time.
"I was in a situation where the adults abused me and the other adults around them did not meet my needs as a child."
Survivor Mark-Vincent Healy, who was abused at St Mary's College, said the report has given an opportunity for the important questions to finally be answered.
"We're peeling back the layers that were above us as children. What was actually going on to allow or permit such abuse to happen?
"I was looking at the abuser and victim in the context of the school. Was the school in any way responsible? What questions need to be asked and answered by the school system? Was it to do with the order running the school? What questions do they have to answer?"
"We're at the highest level nationally, to try answer those sorts of conundrums and questions which allowed for this element and level of abuse to have prospered and to have continued for so many decades, and yet, why was it never stopped?"
Mr Healy also raised concerns about the time a statutory inquiry might take and had criticisms of the scale of the scoping review.
"[It took] two years to do what this is just a preliminary and much of the report, as far as I'm concerned, has not got anything to offer."
"This National Inquiry is looking like it will actually go in the wrong direction, take far too long and end up with sort of like a paper mountain, which is not what we're looking for." That's what, not what we're wanting."
"You're looking for legal redress of the matter. You're looking for the accountability of the religious. And then we're looking at the state. What's the state's part in all of this?"
For Mr Mansfield, although the scoping report has given hope and optimism going forward, he wants to see accountability for perpetrators and support for survivors.
"I want to see the people who were who did this, the religious authorities held accountable. I want to see counselling for the survivors, but I'd like to see the people who actually did the crimes be prosecuted criminally."
Mr Mansfield also called on the government to review state funding given to schools run by religious orders.
"I also think there's a bigger question in terms of when an institution like the Roman Catholic Church has shown itself to be so derelict in its duty in protecting children and was meant to educate if there isn't a way that the government can stop subsidising church run schools and make sure that the church isn't enabling this type of institution."