THE Garda superintendent heading the investigation into allegations of child sex and physical abuse at St Joseph's Industrial School in Salthill, Galway, has rejected any suggestion that the investigation was stalled or even stopped at one point.
Supt Jim Sugrue, Salthill Garda station, said the Western Health Board had acted "entirely appropriately", contrary to implications by a Sunday newspaper recently and an allegation by the Irish Workers' Group (Galway branch).
A complaint of alleged abuse was brought to the health board, which in turn passed the matter on to the Garda, he said. "The gardai investigated it as a criminal matter. The WHB cannot investigate criminal matters. That investigation is ongoing. A file will be completed, I expect, within the next month and forwarded to the DPP."
The Garda investigation proved to be "long and complicated", Supt Sugrue said. After the initial complaint more than two years ago, many more followed, which were fully examined. Further complaints were subsequently made by former residents at St Joseph's, a facility for boys orphaned, abandoned or in care, which was run up to the late 1970s by the Christian Brothers.
It is understood 23 official complaints have been made against six brothers, two of whom have since left the order, while another two have died.
Mr Andy Johnston of the Irish Workers' Group said hundreds of signatures were gathered in a petition seeking the WHB to publish its findings. The board, he claimed, had been "very slow" in finishing its report on the matter, but this interpretation was rejected by the board's chief executive, Mr Eamonn Hannan.
Mr Hannan said that following an abuse complaint from a former St Joseph's resident, the board had conducted investigations "as a result of which we informed the gardai".
"The matter rests with the gardai as of now," Mr Hannan added. "We are happy with the action we took, on foot of that complaint we received and the investigation we carried out, in bringing the matter to the attention of the gardai. There the matter rests . . . I did not ask anyone to conduct an inquiry as such. We passed the matter on to the appropriate authority."
Meanwhile, Mr Johnston said his group would lobby the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, in whose constituency the school was based, to impress upon him the need for publication of the board's report.