Robert Troy
Question:154. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Education and Skills the reason the decision to file away child abuse files for 75 years was taken. [14816/19]
View answerTuesday, 2 April 2019
Questions (154)
Written answers
The recently published Retention of Records Bill is an important measure that will provide for the retention of the records of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee.
I believe that the retention of these records is essential to ensure that we as a people never forget the abuse that was perpetrated against innocent children in institutions and that future generations can be made aware of and understand what took place.
The existing legislation for the three redress bodies contains strict confidentiality provisions, including the related provisions that the bulk of their records would be destroyed at the time of the dissolution of the bodies.
The Retention of Records Bill is first of all designed to ensure that these records are not destroyed but are retained intact. For this approach to be sustainable, due consideration has to be given to the assurances of confidentiality, set down in legislation, to all those who gave testimony or engaged with the bodies in any way based on the assurance of confidentiality, balanced with the wider public interest of retaining the records for posterity and eventually opening them to public inspection. The provisions of the Bill in regard to a lengthy retention period reflect the need to strike that balance.