Dunderrow abuse survivors again told Government needs more time to provide redress

The Dunderrow women have been told again that the Government needs more time before moves can be put in place to provide redress for the child sexual abuse they suffered. 

This is despite a pledge by the Taoiseach in the Dáil two weeks ago that mediation would be initiated to finally bring a solution to their long-standing grievance. 

One of the women told the Irish Examiner at the weekend that she considers this another delaying tactic.

“Why, if the Taoiseach said there will be mediation, do they need more time as we were told on Friday?” she said. 

“It’s like Holly Cairns said in the Dáil: Delay, delay, delay. We have been repeatedly put through this over the years."

The women’s legal representatives had written to the Attorney General early this month, requesting a response by last Friday, July 3.

In a letter from the office, the 19 women were told an extension was required and that a response would be forthcoming on July 17. 

In the event that moves are made towards mediation on that date, it leaves less than two weeks before the end of the law term that shuts down until the first week in October.

The women had all been sexually abused by their former teacher, Leo Hickey, in Dunderrow National School in West Cork in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Hickey pleaded guilty to sample charges in 1998, and was jailed for three years. Following a European Court of Human Rights ruling in favour of one former pupil, Louise O’Keeffe, in 2014, the government was forced to set up a redress scheme for others who had been abused as children.

The scheme was controversial and difficult to access, and it was abandoned following a review in 2019. Another scheme was subsequently set up, but again most applicants were told they did not qualify. 

Two weeks ago, a number of the women, now in their sixties and seventies, spoke anonymously in the media in an attempt to get the State to finally comply with the European court’s ruling.

On June 23, the Taoiseach told the Dáil that it was “important that their voices are heard and listened to".

He said the women’s legal representatives had sought mediation. 

“We will enter into a mediation in good faith, and we will engage constructively,” he said.

One of the women, using the name Martha, told the Irish Examiner that the latest delay “makes me very suspicious".

“It was debated at length in the Dáil but, at this stage, it’s very questionable as to why it has to be extended out to July 17. I’m not sure why they have to keep extending it out. We have been through this again and again.”