Does Redress Board 'gagging clause' prevent disclosure of abuse?

The State’s decision in 2002 to indemnify 18 religious congregations that had run residential institutions for children against legal claims above €128 million was “a mistake”, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said.

The deal was brought to the final Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrats government cabinet meeting by then minister for education Michael Woods. Despite warnings from attorney general Michael McDowell, the deal was agreed.

Under it, the religious congregations concerned were indemnified against any future legal actions taken against them by abuse survivors, in return for a €128 million contribution to redress costs.

Speaking on an RTÉ One documentary about redress, Mr Martin, who was minister for health at the time, said: “In retrospect in my view, that was, that was a mistake at the time.

“I think there was that window. You’re talking about the last cabinet meeting [of that government]. This is something that has been negotiated. It’s in the best interests of everybody, bring it to closure and that’s how it got through.”

Retired High Court judge Mary Laffoy has said she resigned as chair of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in 2003 because of “resistance” to the commission by the Department of Education. She recalled telling colleagues at the time that “I think they want us to wilt on the vine”.

Human Rights lawyer Dr Maeve O’Rourke says the impact of the gagging order on survivors “seems to have been absolutely enormous,” so much so they “often have felt they can’t even speak to the police,” which was not the case.

Nor does it mean “you can never speak about what happened to you.”

However, she feels that “if a state does something that makes people feel they can’t speak, that is a very real interference with their right to freedom of expression.”