An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel

I want to touch very briefly on the issue of the commission of investigation that has been established by the Government to investigate the handling of historical child sexual abuse in our day and boarding schools. I do not want to comment on the case that was made yesterday other than to say it clearly hit the media last night. There have been a lot of communications with all Oireachtas Members in relation to Willow Park in Blackrock. However, I wrote a brief note to the Minister for education last night and, to her credit, at 8 o'clock this morning, I received a detailed response. There is one I want to put on the record and I thank the Minister, Deputy Hildegarde Naughton.
In essence, without sharing the full content of the letter, I have now had clarification that the commission of investigation has been established by the Government to investigate the handling of historical child sex abuse in our day and boarding schools. The chair is, of course, Mr. Justice Michael MacGrath. He was appointed on 1 October 2025. The commission is independent in its role and duties and, therefore, it would not be appropriate for me to talk at any great length about it here at this point in time other than to say the survivors will be engaged with and notified of the due processes to follow.
What was very important in this correspondence from the Minister this morning was that a high-level interdepartmental group, IDG, has been established to advise the Government. My concern here is that this group will look at the issue of a potential redress scheme. Clearly, there is no redress scheme in place.
There is no power to award redress under the terms of reference of the commission. There are two parallel sets of work here. There is the commission doing its investigation and there is the important high-level interdepartmental group set up by the Minister and they are running parallel to each other. As parliamentarians, we have to be vigilant. There has been a lot of debate and engagement on various pieces of legislation. In due course, in the first quarter of next year, I ask that we have the Minister for education in to fill us in on the interdepartmental aspects of this important work. The Minister is on the record now. I can make the letter available to the Leader. I ask that we follow this up in a timely manner in the first quarter of next year. Let us not lose sight of it and let us be there to support the various people involved, in this case the survivors. The Minister has an important interdepartmental group looking at the parallel issues of redress and who will ultimately pick up the tab for that redress, or partially pick up the tab for it. Could the Leader bear that in mind and keep it on his schedule for the early part of next year?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09