Quinn: Government needs time to absorb ‘significant implications’

MARTIN WALL
RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC

The European Court of Human Rights judgment in favour of Louise O’Keeffe had “significant implications” which will take some time to work out, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has said.

The court ruled yesterday that the State had failed to meet its obligation to protect Ms O’Keeffe from the sexual abuse she suffered while a pupil in an Irish national school.

Mr Quinn said he was glad Ms O’Keeffe’s fight was over, saying she “has been through a very, very difficult period for many years”.

Officials are now trying to establish what implications it has for other victims, with more than 130 individuals reportedly having dropped their own claims when the Irish courts ruled against Ms O’Keeffe.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, Mr Quinn said the judgment issued by the court in Strasbourg ran to 82 pages and it would take time to examine it in full. “We will be looking at the implications of that result in consultation with the Attorney General and in the Department of Education and elsewhere,” said Mr Quinn.

Asked whether the Government would offer Ms O’Keeffe an apology, he would only say he sympathised with what she had gone through, while adding he still had to take advice.

“This is a very dark chapter in our past which we will confront,” he said.

Guidelines
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald also said it would take some time to respond to the implications of the judgment. "We have children first guidelines soon to be put on a statutory basis. That will be coming to Government in March. Already those guidelines are being used in schools," she said.

She added that she would have to consider whether action was required in terms of legislation and what precisely was expected from schools.

The Irish Human Rights Commission, which had submitted written observations on the case to the Strasbourg court, welcomed the "landmark" judgment. Its acting chief executive Des Hogan said it was significant for Ms O'Keeffe and other victims of historical child sexual abuse but also had "profound implications" for the State education system.

Amnesty International Ireland's executive director Colm O'Gorman said Ms O'Keeffe's "long battle for justice" had yielded a "hugely important victory for the human rights of all children in Ireland."

Sinn Féin education spokesman Jonathan O’Brien welcomed the ruling and called on the Government to respond appropriately. “Every step of the way, the State did everything possible to attempt to thwart her pursuit of justice.”