{"id":12976,"date":"2025-07-08T15:27:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T14:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=12976"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T14:27:05","slug":"commission-of-investigation-into-sexual-abuse-in-schools-welcome-but-government-must-pursue-religious-orders-for-redress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/commission-of-investigation-into-sexual-abuse-in-schools-welcome-but-government-must-pursue-religious-orders-for-redress\/","title":{"rendered":"Commission of investigation into sexual abuse in schools welcome but government must pursue religious orders for redress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>If religious orders are unwilling to contribute to redress, the government must go after them with a legal team, not a begging bowl<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The decision to establish a commission of investigation into historic sexual abuse in schools is welcome but the government must ensure religious orders contribute to redress, according to Social Democrats education spokesperson Jen Cummins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI welcome the announcement today that a commission of investigation, into historic sexual abuse in schools, will be established. The thousands of people who were abused in these schools have waited far too long for this action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA scoping report, published last year, into abuse at religious-run schools was horrific. It found that hundreds of predators subjected thousands of children to relentless sexual abuse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurvivors described being molested, stripped naked, raped and drugged in an atmosphere of terror and silence. The abuse happened in classrooms, offices, and sports facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe scale of the abuse was such that Garda\u00ed began an investigation into whether it was organised and co-ordinated by paedophile rings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis endemic sexual abuse is a scandal of unprecedented and unparalleled proportions. These predators acted with impunity, were protected by religious orders, and they destroyed the lives of countless innocent children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is why the Minister must ensure that religious orders contribute to any redress scheme. We cannot have a repeat of this government going to religious orders, cap in hand, pleading for contributions \u2013 as happened, most recently, with the mother and baby home redress scheme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf religious orders are unwilling to contribute to redress, the government must go after them with a legal team, not a begging bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If religious orders are unwilling to contribute to redress, the government must go after them with a legal team, not a begging bowl The decision to establish a commission of investigation into historic sexual abuse in schools is welcome but the government must ensure religious orders contribute to redress, according to Social Democrats education spokesperson [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,581,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-jen-cummins","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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