Children’s rights campaigner Louise O’Keeffe has called on both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar to deliver on promises to compensate children sexually abused while attending schools. Ms O’Keeffe has called on both men to honour commitments they gave in the Dáil last July that they would re-open an ex-gratia payment scheme for those sexually abused while attending Irish primary and secondary schools pre-1992. “Both Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar must honour commitments they made in Dáil Éireann a year ago that they would ensure the victims of child sex abuse in Irish schools were no longer wronged,” Ms O’Keeffe told The Irish Times. Ms O’Keeffe was sexually abused by primary school principal Leo Hickey in Dunderrow National School in West Cork in the early 1970s and he was later convicted of abusing her, but the State had denied any civil liability. Ms O’Keeffe brought a case for damages through the Irish courts system but they ruled that the Department of Education was not liable because the school was under the management of the Catholic church even though the State paid Hickey’s salary.

Source: The Irish Times July 05, 2020 12:45 UTC