DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION:THE DEPARTMENT of Education was strongly criticised by the commission for failing to ensure rules in relation to corporal punishment were adhered to in institutions, and for failing to properly investigate some complaints, while completely ignoring others.
Complaints about sexual abuse were “generally dismissed or ignored”, the commission found.
“A full investigation of the extent of the abuse should have been carried out in all cases. All such complaints should have been directed to the gardaí for investigation,” its report states.
It adds that while sexual abuse by members of religious orders was seldom brought to the attention of the Department of Education by religious authorities because of a culture of silence about the issue, “on the rare occasions when the department was informed, it colluded in the silence”.
The commission found the department’s system of inspections was “fundamentally flawed and incapable of being effective”.
There were too few inspectors, school managers were alerted in advance that they would be calling and when they arrived they rarely spoke to the children.
It points out that the Department of Education had legal responsibility for all children committed to the industrial and reformatory schools. But, in reality, inspections were “too few and too limited in scope”.
Nonetheless it says officials were aware that abuse occurred in the schools and they knew the education was inadequate and the industrial training outdated.
The commission also found the department “lacking in ideas about policy”. It said it made no attempt to impose changes that would have improved the lot of the detained children.
“Indeed, it never thought about changing the system.”
The failures by the department, it added, can be seen as tacit acknowledgment by the State of the ascendancy of the congregations and their ownership of the system.
The commission also found that the rules and regulations governing the use of corporal punishment were disregarded by schools with the knowledge of the department.
“Complaints of physical abuse were frequent enough for the Department of Education to be aware that they referred to more than acts of sporadic violence by some individuals. The department knew that violence and beatings were endemic within the system itself.”
The report adds: “Punishments outside the permitted guidelines were ignored and even condoned by the Department of Education.”
The commission concluded that the deferential and submissive attitude of the department towards the congregations compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the schools.