SOCIAL WORKERS IN GRACE ABUSE SCANDAL ARE STILL WORKING WITH TUSLA
Anger at HSE as two criticised by judge are still with the child agency
THE HSE is doing nothing to ensure that a horrific scandal like the Grace case doesn’t happen again, a whistleblower who helped save the vulnerable victim has told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
They spoke out as it emerged that two of five people harshly criticised by a High Court judge this week, for their role in the Grace case, are still working with child agency Tusla.
And all five have retired from the HSE with full pensions. Judge Peter Kelly awarded Grace – who was abused while with a Statefunded foster family for more than 20 years – €6.3m in damages, saying her treatment was ‘not just shocking but a scandal’. And he said the State had abdicated its responsibility to this vulnerable girl. The whistleblower told the MoS that the failure of the HSE to be accountable would leave parents of special needs children ‘fearful’.
They said: ‘Justice Peter Kelly outlined in court this week that he was approving a settlement for Grace far in excess of the cap usually provided for “catastrophic injuries”, allowing for punitive and exemplary damages, in light of the “gross negligence” on the part of the HSE, which he said had “abdicated responsibility” for Grace.
‘It was a good day for Grace but we must now question what can be done with the HSE, an organisation that can be responsible for such harm and yet seems so slow to hold people accountable. We cannot continue to accept that this will be the case; the safety and welfare of vulnerable children is dependent on us demanding change.
‘One can only imagine how fearful parents of children with special needs are, trusting their children to a system which allows this to happen and, indeed, seems to do nothing to stop it happening again. After all, if the same people continue to work in the HSE or Tusla, how can we expect different outcomes?’
A commission of investigation was set up after revelations by two whistleblowers to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.
And during the court hearing this week, Judge Kelly stressed that if it were not for the inquiry, he himself would demand to know about the strange hold the foster family seemed to have over the group of five staff identified by a report, and by HSE boss Tony O’Brien, as responsible for decisions around Grace’s care during the 1990s.
The judge dismissed as ‘fairly derisory’ attempts to address the situation as recently as 2007. Grace had been living with and was being abused by this family since 1989.
Judge Kelly also insisted the HSE should swear in court to abide by the terms of the settlement.
Despite this, at least two of the five people at the centre of the scandal still work with Tusla, one in a senior full-time position and one in a part-time consultant role.
They are among the five people who the HSE’s director general Tony O’Brien described as having great concern over. They were involved in the decision to reverse the removal of Grace from her abusive foster care home in 1996, although it is disputed, in the HSE report, what their exact roles were. A report by Conall Devine revealed the extent of the neglect and failings by staff involved in Grace’s care.
The report – referring to HSE and South Eastern Health Board staff using H and numbers so they wouldn’t be identified – makes clear a decision was taken in April 1996 to remove Grace, after allegations of abuse by another family.
But then that decision was overturned at a meeting attended by the same people, among others.
All five retired from the HSE on a full pension