Special rapporteur says Government departments were unwilling to discuss child welfare issues with him

Government departments are “not willing” to discuss significant issues on child welfare with the special rapporteur on child protection, are ignoring his correspondence and are delaying the publication of his reports, with “negative” consequences, he has claimed.

Dr Conor O’Mahony, who announced earlier this year he would not seek a second term as special rapporteur, says the value of the role “will be significantly limited if Government departments, other than the Department of Children, are not willing to discuss the significant issues of the day”.

In his final report to Government, which he submitted in June and which was published on Thursday, he says: “A recurring issue throughout my term was the length of time that elapses between the submission of reports to Government and their publication, which ranged between four months... and seven months”.

Such delays are “difficult to understand” as most of his reports are published without Government response. The delays have “negative consequences” including anxiety for individuals affected by issues in the reports. Some analyses in the reports are “outdated by the time of publication” and “uncomfortable” confusion can occur as to who is special rapporteur if a predecessor’s report is published as a new appointee is trying to establish themselves.

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Correspondence to the Department of Education “on several occasions” about the revised terms of an ex gratia scheme for survivors of sex abuse in schools “received no reply”, he says, while Government concerns about his recommendations on donor-assisted human reproduction and surrogacy “were not shared directly” with him. Several of the concerns were “based on a misunderstanding”, he believes, and could have been avoided had there been direct engagement, he says.

“Child protection is a whole-of-government issue and demands a whole-of-government response,” says Dr O’Mahony. “A government-appointed special rapporteur on child protection requires the opportunity to engage constructively with all government departments (and not just with the Department of Children) as appropriate.”

In the wide-ranging report, Dr O’Mahony is highly critical of Government in numerous areas.

The revised ex gratia scheme for survivors of sex abuse in schools, introduced after the Louise O’Keeffe case, he says, has “significant flaws” including that applicants must have initiated legal proceedings against the State before July 1st, 2021.

“It is an entirely arbitrary date, with no basis in either the O’Keeffe judgment or the statute of limitations, and seems designed only to exclude deserving applicants from the scheme,” he says.

He continues: “I wrote to the Minister for Education on 16 August 2021 calling on her to remove the condition of prior litigation from the revised ex gratia scheme and to assess claims solely by reference to the abuse experienced by the applicants; and to amend the scheme to make provision for all legal costs incurred in prior litigation against the State. I included a suggested revised set of terms for the scheme that incorporated these changes. I received no reply to this correspondence.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education told The Irish Times on Thursday evening: “The ex gratia scheme was originally established in 2015 and put in place to provide those who had instituted legal proceedings against the State in respect of day school sexual abuse – and subsequently discontinued those proceedings following rulings in the domestic courts and were therefore left without a remedy – with an opportunity to apply for an ex gratia payment.

“The revised scheme was designed in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General to provide, first and foremost, a remedy to that cohort. To date 102 applications have been approved.

“The [Department of Children] consulted with the department in respect of the views expressed by the special rapporteur and a response was provided to [the Department of Children] in this regard.”

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said the department worked “closely with the Department of Children and relevant stakeholders on all [child protection] issues and has responded in a timely manner to all requests for engagement with observations and reports of the special rapporteur”.

Comment was also sought from the Department of Health.