Kenny awaiting advice on abuse cases

TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny is awaiting the advice of the Attorney General on the “best way possible to proceed” in dealing with the sexual abuse of patients at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said it was 17 years since complaints about abuse at the hospital were first made. He pointed out that three years ago Minister for Health James Reilly, then Fine Gael spokesman on health, had tabled a motion calling for an immediate inquiry, and the “Taoiseach, Tánaiste and the President, who were in opposition at the time, voted in favour of the motion”.

He said since November the Taoiseach had offered on several occasions to meet Opposition TDs on the issue, but they were still waiting.

But “more importantly, more than 200 victims and survivors are still waiting”, and every delay brought “fresh pain and anguish to them”. The abuse is alleged to have taken place between 1964 and 1994.

The Sinn Féin leader referred to his own family situation and said “my father was a sexual abuser, so I have some sense of the anguish and the pain that these citizens are going through”.

He called on the Taoiseach to “give a clear commitment” on a commission of inquiry.

Mr Kenny said he shared Mr Adams’s view it was a “horrendous situation”. He told the Sinn Féin leader the Attorney General was looking at the legal difficulties involved because the Government’s referendum on powers for Oireachtas committees had failed.

“I really empathise and sympathise with those who are the victims in this case. However, I do not want to stand up here and announce inquiries like that.”

He said to the Sinn Féin leader: “I ask you to bear with me while the office of the Attorney General provides me with the best advice on the best way possible to proceed.” He said he was quite happy to sit down with TDs from the northeast region and have a rational discussion “about ensuring that justice is done for the victims”.

Funding had been made available, but Mr Kenny had assumed “wrongly, that the referendum on Oireachtas inquiries to carry out investigations of public importance would be approved. It was not approved by the people so we cannot proceed down that route.”