Anyone with information on child sexual abuse in any primary or secondary school up to 2013 will be asked to contact a commission of investigation later this year.
The Commission of Investigation into the Handling of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Schools has announced a survey to be conducted this autumn. It will invite “all those with information about child sexual abuse in relation to any day or boarding school between 1927 and 2013 to provide initial information”.
The period mirrors the time frame examined by a scoping inquiry, which was set up by the previous government in 2023 and reported the following year.
Chair of the commission Judge Michael McGrath described the survey as “a critical part” of its work.
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He wanted to make it clear this was “not limited to sexual abuse related to schools run by religious orders”.
He said: “We want to hear from anyone who experienced, witnessed or reported child sexual abuse in any primary or secondary school in Ireland, including special schools, from 1927 to 2013.”
The scoping inquiry, whose report in September 2024 recommended the setting up of the commission, disclosed 2,395 abuse allegations in 302 schools run by religious orders and feared that many more remained unreported. Some 182 survivors spoke in detail to the inquiry about what happened to them between the early 1960s and the early 1990s.
The scoping inquiry used the dates 1927-2013 to distinguish between “historical” allegations of abuse and more recent ones, and also because they aligned with the availability of relevant historical records.
Making the survey announcement, McGrath said “it is anticipated that many more people who experienced sexual abuse in schools will be able to come forward to this commission if they choose”.
Responses to the survey “will help to determine the focus of the next stages of the commission’s work”, he said.
A commission website will be launched in coming months and the survey will be available via the new website for those who wish to complete it online. It will also be available in other formats, including printed copies, and will be widely advertised when it opens.
Describing the commission as “in its establishment phase”, McGrath welcomed the four commissioners appointed to help him in its work.
Appointed by Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton, these are former High Court judge Mary Ellen Ring; solicitor Roddy Bourke, former chair of various Law Society committees; adjunct professor of social work and social policy at Trinity College Dublin Michele Clarke; and safeguarding consultant Kieran McGrath.
Senior counsel Mary O’Toole, who chaired the scoping inquiry, has been appointed senior legal adviser to the commission.
The commission is required to investigate how concerns of child sexual abuse in day and boarding schools in Ireland were handled by schools and other relevant bodies. It will not investigate individual cases of child sexual abuse or make findings in this regard.
It will examine in detail how concerns or allegations of sexual abuse were handled by the schools and identify failures to protect children. This will include the handling of concerns of child sexual abuse reported to the Garda, the Department of Education and the HSE.
Under its terms of reference, the commission is required to adopt a sampling approach for investigation. It will select sample cases based on several factors, including the availability of sufficient witness and documentary evidence. Information gathered through the survey planned for the autumn will also help the commission identify the focus of its investigation.
In the survey, survivors of sexual abuse will be invited to indicate if they would like to take part in a survivor engagement programme. This is voluntary and will be informal, confidential and anonymised to protect each person’s privacy.
The programme will report to the commission chairman on the impact of child sexual abuse in schools and on any lessons that can be learned to further strengthen child protection measures.
Work is under way at a premises in Dublin to ensure it will be ready to welcome those taking part in the survivor engagement programme and to support the commission’s wider investigation.
