THE TAOISEACH HAS delivered a state apology to survivors of notorious predator Bill Kenneally in the Dáil.

Micheál Martin also said he was “profoundly sorry” that two former Waterford Fianna Fáil TDs had “so comprehensively failed to defend and protect young children” from Kenneally, referring to the uncle of the abuser, the late Billy Kenneally Senior, and his cousin Brendan Kenneally.

On what survivors hailed as a momentous day, we learned the following:

• the Taoiseach told the Dáil that the South East Commission report showed there had been a “major failing by an organ of the state”, with the investigation telling a “story of betrayal, manipulation, abuse, failure and pain”;
• The justice minister said work had begun to reform the law for offences committed by people holding public office;
• The garda commissioner issued his first public comments on the case, apologising to victims and stating that An Garda Síochána accepted the report’s findings;
• The government is now to work to provide redress to victims.

Martin said that senior gardaí should have had a “much more active and committed response” when they learned of allegations of abuse by Kenneally in 1987.

“As Taoiseach I apologise unreservedly on behalf of the state to the victims of Bill Kenneally for what was a clear and serious dereliction of duty,” Martin said, before addressing survivors who were seated in the Dáil gallery.

“I want to apologise to those men,” Martin said, calling out each by name, “Jason Clancy, Paul Walsh, Kevin Keating, Colin Power, Barry Murphy, Simon O’Toole, and Gerry Mullane.”

TDs had applauded the men at the opening of today’s proceedings.

Kenneally died in prison last month while serving a near 20-year term in prison for indecently assaulting 10 boys at various locations in Waterford in the 1980s.

His death came just days after the publication of a major state report into his abuses and how authorities dealt with reports of his crimes in the decades before he was finally brought to justice.

The report found a “clear and serious dereliction of duty” on behalf of An Garda Síochána and stated that knowledge of his activities became known in Waterford to two senior garda officers, as well as a senior clergyman, in the late 1980s.

However, Kenneally was not brought to justice prior to a formal complaint by Jason Clancy in December 2012.

Martin apologises over former TDs

The Taoiseach apologised for the actions of former Fianna Fáil TDs, Billy Kenneally Senior, and his cousin Brendan Kenneally, over their actions when they learned of the abuse at different points in the 1980s and early 2000s.

The commission report had found that Brendan Kenneally did not report the allegations to any formal agencies but instead sought to arrange psychiatric treatment for his cousin when he was contacted by a constituent in 2001.

Martin’s comments about his party members go further than previously, and come following several years of criticism from survivors over the actions.

The report found Brendan Kenneally “should never have allowed” Bill Kenneally “to continue to canvas and act as tallyman for him or the Fianna Fáil party”, which he did up until 2011.

This course of action, the report found, at “the very least fell substantially below the standards the Commission would expect from a TD of Mr Kenneally’s experience”.

The former TD had gone public almost a decade ago about being aware of the abuses, before the inquiry was established, and continued assisting with Butler’s election efforts until pressure from victims led to him stepping aside in 2020.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Martin said that the commission chairman Mr Justice Michael White had “made a serious finding against former members of this house”.

“He notes that Brendan Kenneally had one obvious option, to report this matter to the Child Protection Services of the South Eastern Health Board in Waterford and ask that service to carry out a risk assessment,” Martin said.

The Taoiseach said that the actions of these “influential relatives” of the child abuser, including that of his maternal uncle Monsignor John Shine, constituted a “failure to bring the matter into the public domain or to report the matter to the relevant statutory agencies; a failure, in short, to protect children.”

Martin added:

There is no question about the duty public representatives have to put the safety of others first, and I repeat the fact that two TDs, Billy Kenneally Snr and Brendan Kenneally failed in that duty to the victims of Bill Kenneally.

According to the Taoiseach, these men “had failed the victims by putting their own relative first” when they learned of the abuse.

Brendan Kenneally, who served as a junior minister in the 1990s and was a TD until 2011, resigned from the party on the day the inquiry report was published last month. He has not commented on the findings to date but had insisted during hearings at the commission that he had done all he believed he could after learning of the abuse.

Justice minister pushes for law reform

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan told the Dáil today that the attorney general has written to the Law Reform Commission seeking to review whether a new public order offence was needed.

It’s after a recommendation from the South East Commission that there should be a new offence on the statute books for when a public official perverts the course of justice not by criminality, but by serious dereliction of duty.

O’Callaghan said on Tuesday that the attorney general had asked legal experts to consider whether this could include an offence “by omission”.

A response to this request is expected in the next nine months, the justice minister said.

‘Closure’

Clancy told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio One on Tuesday morning that that state apology today will bring closure after a “hard battle”.

“We got the vindications from the report, Bill Kennedy passed the state apology now within a month … it’s like as if the universe is kind of sending us full closure,” he said.

The drawn-out process to get justice “consumed him” he said, and he is looking forward to going on holidays with his wife next month, “when it will all be over”.

Speaking to reporters outside Leinster House before the apology, Colin Power, another survivor of Kenneally’s abuse, said that he hoped the apology is “unequivocal and comprehensive”.

“A state apology was never on our radar,” Power said.

Jason Clancy, Colin Power, Paul Walsh, Gerry Mullane, Kevin Keating and Barry Murphy outside the Dáil on Tuesday before the state apology. Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

“It’s been a long journey for us over the last 10 years, really, and for our families as well,” Power added.

“So it’s an important day for them as well, and I think it’s recognition of the journey we’ve been on, and I hope the apology is unequivocal and comprehensive because that’s what this deserves.”

‘Institutional blind eye’

Tánaiste Simon Harris told the Dáil chamber that the children in Waterford at the time faced a “monstrous evil” in Kenneally, and “should have been protected, not abandoned to depravity and despair”.

The Fine Gael leader added that while the Commission report held back from a finding of collusion, there was still at the “very least an institutional blind eye” turned to the crimes of Kenneally. Children were silenced

Harris further pointed to findings in the recent report that one young victim of Kenneally was turned away by a guard when he went to a garda station in 1985 with 11

He paid credit to survivors for facing down “intimidation and enormous personal trauma” in their bid for Kenenally to face justice.

“The truth emerged not because systems worked as they should, but because survivors refused to give up,” Harris said.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the men had “faced unspeakable trauma and still found it within himself to seek truth, justice and to overcome” the obstacles in their way.

They had faced, McDonald said, a predator who “perfected an ability to groom, to exploit and to blackmail his young victims”, who had not only sexually abuse them as boys, but also tortured them psychologically.

She said they did because to protect their children and other children, and that they had been able to “right a terrible wrong” by their campaign.

Waterford political reaction

John Cummins, Fine Gael TD for Wateford and junior minister at the department of housing, told the Dáil today that he had met the victims at his house when he served as mayor of the city several years ago.

Cummins said that the state aplogy “cannot erase the past, but it can recognise the profound wrong that was done to you and the failures that allowed it to happen”.

“I want to particularly thank those men who sat in the living room of my house and shared their horrendous experiences with me back when I was Mayor of Waterford,” he said, adding that those private conversations more than a decade ago.had convinced him of the importance of the campaign to set up an inquiry more than a decade ago.

Sinn Féin Waterford TD said that the apology must be followed by “action, accountability, proper supports for survivors and their families”, and the full implementation of the commission’s recommendations.

“The courage of the survivors forced the truth into the light. Their determination made this apology unavoidable,” Cullinane said.

Cullinane’s fellow Waterford Sinn Féin TD Conor McGuinness said the survivors had shown “extraordinary courage” in their campaign.

“No more can this State or our society allow perpetrators to hide in the shadows. The days of deference to the powerful and well-connected must be over. The days of impunity, silence and cover-up must never return,” McGuinness said.

In a joint statement, Mayor of Waterford Liam Brazil and Metropolitan Mayor Lola O’Sullivan said today’s apology represents an important acknowledgement of the wrongs that were committed and of the failures experienced by survivors.

Garda Commissioner apology

In a statement by garda commissioner Justin Kelly, making the first public comment on the report of the South East Commission, An Garda Síochána said it “fully accepts” the findings of the inquiry.

“An Garda Síochána acknowledges and regrets the serious inaction of the former Acting Chief Superintendent and Acting Superintendent in charge of the original investigation into Bill Kenneally in 1987,” Kelly said.

“An Garda Síochána acknowledges the impact that this “serious dereliction of duty” by the former Acting Chief Superintendent had on victims.”

Kelly added that recent years have seen An Garda Síochána invest significantly in the investigation of domestic and sexual abuse, including establishing divisional protective service units across the country with each one having highly trained specialist investigators to help victims.

“As Garda Commissioner I wish to offer my personal apology to the victims of Bill Kenneally for the significant failures of An Garda Síochána, we fell far short of what is expected of us,” Kelly said.

With reporting by Mairead Maguire and Kate Henshaw