CHILD ABUSE COMMISSION: There has been "no real engagement" by the Department of Education and Science with the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse, the chairwoman warned yesterday.
Ms Justice Laffoy was speaking at a public hearing to consider a request by the Department of Education to extend by 16 weeks the April 30th deadline for full discovery of documents relating to suspected child abuse in residential homes.
After considering the department's application and advice from Mr Frank Clarke SC, legal adviser to the commission, Ms Justice Laffoy granted an extension of just eight weeks, to June 27th.
"Whatever confidence there was in getting the job done quickly is being sapped away by the manner in which the department has engaged with the commission" the judge said.
"The commission is worn out by expressions of contrition from the department that are not matched by delivery.
"It beggars belief that we are where we are today. We are 18 months down the road, and the department is still not dealing directly with requests from the commission," she added.
Ms Doirbhile Flanagan SC, for the department, said several discovery directions had been complied with over the past three years, and the only difference this time was in terms of the time-frame for submission of all documents.
Ms Flanagan said this discovery order involved possibly up to 500 institutions and 1.5 million pages of documents to be searched.
All previous discovery directions allowed a time-frame of 4-6 weeks for only one institution at a time, she said.
Mr Clarke said that the fact that the department was required to make a full affidavit of discovery had been known by it for the best part of 18 months and one overall affidavit had been made "so it would be easier for the department to comply".
He warned that it would be "dangerous for the commission to embark on potentially adversarial hearings" without having all the necessary documents.
Ms Flanagan said that, although compliance with the order could possibly delay hearing the victims, it was not something the Department could be blamed for.