19 Dunderrow Abuse Survivors May Sue State for Redress After Scheme Exclusions

A group of 19 women, aged 61 to mid-70s, who suffered sexual abuse at Dunderrow National School, may sue the State to access redress. They seek €84,000 each, the amount awarded under the second O’Keeffe scheme, but the State is refusing to establish a payment mechanism.

Their abuse was perpetrated by former principal Leo Hickey, who ran the school from 1962 to 1974. Hickey was convicted in 1998 of 386 sexual offenses against 21 former pupils and served a three-year sentence. Louise O’Keeffe, another survivor of Hickey’s abuse, initially faced a €500,000 legal bill in 2008 when the Supreme Court rejected her claim against the State. However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in her favor seven years later, leading to redress schemes in 2015 and 2021.

These schemes, however, excluded many victims due to strict eligibility criteria. The 2015 scheme required prior legal action against the State, and the 2021 scheme required proceedings to be issued by July 1, 2021. The current group of women did not meet these criteria. Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton, in an April 28 reply to their solicitor, cited limited State resources and asked them to await findings from a Commission of Investigation and an Inter-Departmental Group, with reports due by May 2027.

Patricia Carey, special advocate for institutional abuse survivors, criticized the government's refusal to implement a proper redress scheme for Dunderrow survivors, calling it «appalling» and another example of «creating a hierarchy of abuses.» She noted that only about a third of the €31 million allocated for the second scheme was paid out due to strict qualification. Conor O’Mahony of University College Cork stated these women, abused by the same teacher in the same school as O’Keeffe, should receive similar compensation, adjusted for inflation. O’Keeffe plans to support the 19 women, emphasizing that survivors should not be re-traumatized by litigation.