CONVICTED CHILD ABUSER Bill Kenneally is to be called before the inquiry examining the State’s handling of complaints against him.

On the second day since the inquiry opened to the public, its chairperson Mr Justice Michael White said that “it is the intention of the commission” to call upon Bill Kenneally for evidence before it concludes its hearings later this year.

Last May, Kenneally received a four-and-a-half-year sentence for abusing five boys on unknown dates between December 1979 and March 1990. He was aged between his 20s and 40s when carrying out the abuse.

The 72-year-old accountant, from Laragh, Summerville Avenue, Waterford, had already been serving a 14-year sentence for abusing 10 boys from 1984 to 1987.

Mr Justice White said there are up to 15 witnesses still to be called.

Barra McGrory of Phoenix Law, barrister for the survivors, requested that Kenneally not be asked “in any detail about the acts” committed by him to protect the victims. 

This evidence has already been put forward in the commission as part of victims’ evidence, McGrory said. Instead, questioning of Kenneally will focus on “other issues in the terms of reference”.

The commission of inquiry is examining allegations of collusion between An Garda Síochána, the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, the former South Eastern Health Board, Basketball Ireland and unnamed “political figures”.

Earlier on Tuesday, the inquiry heard that gardaí only contacted one victim the day after an article was published in a newspaper about the emerging scandal, despite Garda claims they had already tried reaching the man

As part of its work, the inquiry is examining separate garda investigations in 1987 and 2012. Both investigations have faced criticisms from some of the victims over beliefs that Kenneally could have been charged much earlier.

The commission was formed following a campaign by survivors into the handling of complaints of sexual abuse against the former basketball coach Bill Kenneally.