Irish Government to reopen redress scheme for victims of sexual abuse
The government has announced that a revised scheme will be opened for victims of abuse in schools. The decision was made to reopen the scheme after pressure was put on the government by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. The commission has previously submitted a report to the Council of Europe stating that Ireland was failing to provide a redress scheme for the victims of sexual abuse suffered in schools.
One of the abuse victims Ms. O’Keeffe who was sexually abused by her primary school principal in DunderrowNationalSchool, was successful in her case before the European Court of Human Rights. Although the principal was convicted of the abuse the Irish government denied any liability on their part.
The redress scheme was paused in 2019 after High Court judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill reviewed unsuccessful applications and determined that the criteria for payment under the scheme were too narrow. New criteria were introduced under the revised scheme. The Minister for Education said that ‘Ireland takes its obligations to the European Court of Human Rights extremely seriously and the revised terms of the scheme should remove any doubt about Ireland’s ongoing commitment to implement the ruling in full’.