A REPORT INTO the handling of historic sexual abuse claims in the Defence Forces has found that Department of Defence officials as well as two Defence Ministers acted appropriately in dealing with allegations.
From May 2020 until September 2021 Anthony O’Brien, a retired Sergeant of the Permanent Defence Force, sent information to the Department of Defence alleging that there were sexual offences committed within the Permanent Defence Force.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, and briefly Leo Varadkar, led the department at this time. Coveney appointed Ruth Fitzgerald SC to an Independent Review Group (IRG) investigation into O’Brien’s claims.
The period covered by the allegations is from the 1950s to 1994.
These amount to 61 offences alleged to have been committed in Ireland and overseas by members of the Defence Forces, including 21 firsthand accounts.
The allegations relate to 19 females, and 33 males.
Last week, The Journal exclusively revealed that the report would be published imminently having obtained a copy of it.
Published today, Fitzgerald’s report states that defence officials were “proper in all circumstances” in their handling of O’Brien’s disclosures.
O’Brien had made an appeal on social media for former and serving members of the Irish Defence Forces to come forward with allegations.
When the 61 offences described by O’Brien were compared to the average number of members of the Defence Forces in the period they took place, these figures were far below the prevalence rate reported in the general population.
They are also far below the prevalence rate reported in the US and UK militaries.
However the report notes that “the allegations forwarded by Mr. O’Brien can be assumed to represent only a small part of the actual sexual abuse that likely occurred in the Defence Forces in the period in question”.
The report found that levels of sexual assault in the Defence Forces were similar to those recorded in the Canadian Armed Forces.
“O’Brien urged the Minister to make a public statement acknowledging that sexual abuse took place in the Defence Forces in the period in question,” the report said.
“He also sought an apology from the Minister to alleged victims, the introduction of a system of redress and of counselling for alleged victims and a commission of investigation.”
“Neither an acknowledgement nor an apology could be given by the Minister on the basis of the allegations contained in the documents forwarded by Mr. O’Brien alone,” the report continued, stating that an apology could not have been made until an investigation concluded.
“As to the provision of a redress scheme, this is a matter for the Legislature”
“It seems to me that the Minister has taken the action necessary to assist those members who have alleged incidents of historic sexual abuse,” Fitzgerald stated.
The report also found that the Minister’s effort to initiate a helpline for former members and that the manner in which the complaints were dealt with “were in keeping with internal grievance and regulatory procedures”.
In her report, the barrister said that she did not have expertise in analysing data but said she used studies from Ireland and abroad to make her determination.
Given the nature of how the data was collected the report is not a like-for-like comparison.
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