THE COMMISSION OF inquiry into the case of ‘Grace’ has been given a three-month extension, with details of the report expected it be made public on 12 December.

The extension is to allow the inquiry team to complete a number of outstanding administrative tasks, such as tallying up legal costs at the final phase of the Commission’s work.

The Grace case concerns a young woman with profound intellectual disabilities who was left in a foster home in the Waterford area for almost 20 years despite a succession of sexual and physical abuse allegations.

The long-awaited final report was delivered to the Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman in July, but was due to be completed in May 2019. The Commission was granted a number of extensions, totalling five years.

Earlier this year, Ministers met with the inquiry to express their dissatisfaction with the pace of the investigation.

Then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar later described the delays as “extremely frustrating”. The final report was expected to go to Cabinet during this term of the Dáil. 

In 1995, on the back of these claims, the South Eastern Health Board decided not to place any further people in the home but a decision to remove Grace was overturned in 1996. As a result she stayed in the home until a whistleblower’s complaint in 2009.

One of two interim reports - running to a total of about 800 pages – previously said the evidence on the rationale to overturn the decision to remove Grace from facility was “weak and confused and remembered as some unarticulated impediment or obstacle”.

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 based in the South East.