Report into abuse at Donegal disability centre will be published in full, Coveney says

Families of victims of sexual abuse at a residential disability care facility in Co Donegal will get to see the full report of a review into the abuse, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has pledged.

“We want that to happen as soon as possible,” Mr Coveney said, following calls by An Garda Síochána to delay publication of the Brandon report on the basis that it did not accurately reflect the actions they took.

The Brandon report into abuse at Ard Gréine Court in Ballybofey looks at 108 occurrences of sexually inappropriate behaviour carried out by one resident, given the pseudonym of Brandon in the report, against 18 victims, many of them non-verbal, between 2003 and 2011.

Mr Coveney told Sinn Féin Donegal TD Pearse Doherty, who raised the issue, that local gardaí wrote to the Health Service Executive (HSE) last week on November 4th "requesting that the HSE continue to maintain the agreement not to publish the detailed executive summary until they completed their process".

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Separately An Garda Síochána wrote the following day to the HSE “indicating that there was a factual inaccuracy in the executive summary, which they indicated should be corrected and are requesting a copy of the full report”.

The Minister said their correspondence has been sent to the chair of the review panel who drafted the report and executive summary.

Mr Coveney added that if the chair of the review panel “is satisfied that the report is accurate, then there will be no need for any further delay”.

He said it was the least the families deserve “to get the full truth and to see this full report, not an executive summary or an extended executive summary but the full report. They have already been through enough in relation to this case.”

‘Catastrophic failure’

Mr Doherty said that the bravery of a whistleblower a number of years ago led to the individual identified as Brandon being isolated, but two years after that he was relocated and the abuse “started all over again” and represented a “catastrophic failure” by the HSE.

He said the families placed their trust in the HSE to protect their relatives and “that obviously didn’t happen and they were failed again and again”.

Calling for political intervention, he said: “The Government cannot stand by any longer and allow the organs of the State to conceal the truth.”

He said the HSE continued to block publication and gardaí were also seeking to delay it.

“The shroud of secrecy and the circling of the State wagons have no place in a modern democracy.”

Mr Coveney agreed with Mr Doherty on the need for “political inputs to ensure the full, unvarnished truth in relation to what happened here and the responsibility that comes with that in terms of those who are in positions of decision-making”.

The Minister said these incidences occurred with the “full knowledge of staff and management of the facility”.

Safety and protection of vulnerable people in the care of the State is paramount and the Government’s first concern.

He said Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte wants the report published in full and last week met families who wished to meet her on a one-to-one basis to discuss the events and the approach that she had taken on the issue.

“But I can assure you the Government wants this report published and quickly.”