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THE FINAL REPORT into the ‘Grace’ case inquiry was published yesterday after a six- year delay.
The inquiry, which was established in 2017, was chaired by senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly.
Grace was young woman with profound intellectual disabilities when she was left in a foster home in the Waterford area for almost 20 years, despite a succession of sexual and physical abuse allegations.
She was born on 24 November 1978 to a 17-year-old mother who had been admitted to a mother and baby home in Cork two months earlier.
Grace had a difficult birth and suffered significant trauma to her brain which left her with profound, lifelong intellectual and physical disability.
Grace was 17 before she got a visit from a social worker, she is now 46 years old.
In 1995, on the back of claims that Grace suffered abuse in her foster home, the South Eastern Health Board decided not to place any more people in the home.
However, a decision to remove Grace was overturned in 1996.
As a result, she stayed in the home until a whistleblower’s complaint in 2009. She was removed from the home when she was 31.
The controversy resulted in the then-HSE Director General Tony O’Brien apologising to the 47 families – including Grace’s – who were in the care of the home.
The report published yesterday, which runs to 2,000 pages, states that the commission is not satisfied that the evidence was such as to establish that marks and bruises seen on Grace was a result of her having been subjected to physical abuse.
The commission’s report outlines that it did not establish that Grace had been subjected to sexual abuse over the years that she lived with Family X.
However, the commission is satisfied that there was neglect in the standard of care provided to Grace by Mrs X, in terms of her clothing and personal hygiene. The report does not find there was neglect of Grace in terms of the provision of food and sustenance while she lived with the family.
There is a finding of serious neglect on the part of Mrs X in relation to Grace’s dental care with the report stating there was also a level of financial mismanagement or abuse when it came to Grace’s disability allowance.
Why was Grace left there, who made that decision and why? The report does not hold a person accountable for the decision.
The report does cite conversations that took place within the HSE in 2009 around concerns it had about Grace’s case being put in the public domain.
The commission said it is satisfied that the discussion above “predominantly focused upon the risks for the HSE as a corporate body in taking a wardship application in Grace’s case”.
The commission found that the conversation entailed deep discussions around whether the HSE should proceed to make an application to seek to have Grace taken into wardship in the context of “a perceived risk to the HSE” and that it risked ”a lot of information coming into the public domain that would be harmful to the HSE”.
The commission also said it was satisfied that concerns were raised that if a wardship application were made it could open a “can of worms”. It was satisfied that concerns in the HSE were raised that it could be open to serious criticism, that people could lose their jobs and that a civil action could be brought on behalf of Grace.
HSE CEO Bernard Gloster reiterated his apology to Grace and her mother.
He said there was a significant lack of oversight in her care and “we will never know the full life experience of Grace”.
Whistleblower Iain Smith, who was a social worker in the ‘Grace’ case has said he told Simon Harris to shut down the Farrelly Commission in 2019, stating that in his view, it was a “complete waste of time”.
“Stumped and baffled” is how some politicians have described the report, with Kilkenny TD John McGuinness stating that in his view, “the government has a lot to answer for”.
Also reacting to the report, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she is “deeply shocked and disappointed” that the report appears, in her view, to provide “no answers”.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin questioned the effectiveness of public inquiries, saying the state has spent half a billion Euro over the last 27 years on various investigations.
He also said he would “appreciate” an explanation from the commission as to why witnesses who took part in the inquiry were not informed in advance that the report was being published yesterday. Minister Norma Foley made that request to the commission but she told reporters that she was told her request could not be fulfilled.
A number of political parties have called for a Dáil debate on the report, which is likely to take place when the Dáil returns after the Easter break.
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