I am grateful to have the opportunity to raise the serious and vexatious matter of an investigation into five separate allegations of child sexual abuse, which occurred in 1988 involving children in the Wexford area, and why, as reported in the media last weekend, that investigation did not proceed.
The cloak of authority must not be used to shield the perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Serious questions must be answered about the investigation of at least five allegations of child sexual abuse in the Wexford area in 1988. Media reports during the past week highlighted that these serious allegations were in the first instance properly and competently investigated by the South Eastern Health Board which was sufficiently concerned with the results to refer the allegations to the gardaí and, as we know, no prosecution followed as a result of that.
According to reports, following the referral by the health board, statements were taken from a number of young girls aged between 11 and 12 alleging abuse by a priest in the Wexford area. A decision was taken by local Garda management not to proceed with the investigation and now, mysteriously, the file on the investigation is missing.
Many worrying aspects of this investigation require explanation. An internal Garda inquiry is to take place to establish if the investigation was properly carried out and a report on it will be made to the Garda Commissioner. What are the terms of reference of that inquiry? Does the Minister intend to make this report public? Will the report answer the accusation that a garda was instructed to call upon the priest to request that he leave the parish with the caveat that if he refused he would be arrested? Will it reveal on whose instruction the investigating officer was acting when he was told to send handwritten statements to Garda headquarters in Wexford without making copies of them which is the normal procedure? Will the report indicate who in local Garda management made the decision to drop the case and why? Will it indicate if the priest's superiors were informed of the investigation and, if so, what action was taken by them? Were the priest's superiors made aware of the direction to the priest to leave the parish? Were any subsequent allegations made of abuse by the priest after that initial investigation?
Those questions must be answered. The Garda report must be completed without delay so that the victims and their parents, in particular, can see that justice has been done to a certain exent.
There cannot be a suspicion that the cloak of authority, in whatever guise, could be used to shield the perpetrators of the appalling crime of child sexual abuse. Anyone who knowingly shields an abuser is as guilty of perpetuating the suffering of children and also of putting children at further risk. That cannot be allowed to happen. For that reason it is crucial that a report of the investigation into the allegations of child sexual abuse in Wexford should be made public.
