Seán Crowe
Question:152 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science the scheme she intends to put in place in order to allow redress for victims of abuse who were day pupils at educational institutions here. [26143/04]
View answerWednesday, 27 October 2004
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Written answers
The Residential Institutions Redress Board was established as an alternative mechanism to the courts to provide financial redress to former residents of institutions who were abused while in institutions over which the State had a significant supervisory or regulatory responsibility. There are no plans to extend the remit of the redress board to day schools.
The rationale behind the setting up of the redress board was that children in the institutions were separated from their parents and therefore did not have the benefit of the care and protection which children in the care of their families usually enjoy. The institutions concerned controlled all aspects of children's lives 24 hours, seven days a week with no reasonable capacity for access to or involvement by parents. Therefore, the children in the institutions relied to a significant degree on the public bodies that had a statutory duty to protect them.
This situation did not apply to day schools which were in the main privately owned and in which children were enrolled by their parents. Public bodies did not have the same kind of supervisory functions, powers or duties that applied to residential institutions and the children themselves were resident with their families.
People who as children suffered sexual abuse in day schools have other avenues in which they may seek compensation from those who were responsible for their abuse. Amendments to the Statute of Limitations recognise that a person who suffered sexual abuse in childhood may not have been in a position, due to the abuse suffered, to take legal action against an abuser. Before the statute was amended a person had only three years from the date she or he attained majority to initiate such an action. The statute now provides that the normal three year period will not apply where the delay in bringing the action resulted from the abuse itself, for example, suppressed memories of abuse.
Any person who was subjected to abuse should in the first instance report the matter to the Garda. She or he should also obtain legal advice in relation to the legal remedies that may be open to them, such as seeking compensation in the courts from those who were responsible for their abuse.