Video – Gerry Adams proposes all-island process to deal with issue of abuse

» Staff Reporter

‘Sinn Féin has not been involved in any cover-up of abuse. We have sought to provide clear support and advice to victims and those at risk, and we have urged anyone with information in respect of abuse to bring it to the appropriate authorities’

DURING Wednesday’s Dáil debate on allegations by Máiría Cahill, Gerry Adams urged the Irish Government to back Sinn Féin proposals for an all-Ireland process to deal with the issue of sexual abuse.

He again strongly rejected accusations that Sinn Fein was involved in a cover-up around the allegations made by Máiría Cahill and accused Fine Gael leader Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin of cynical political opportunism. 

See video excerpt here.

The Sinn Féin leader said:

“The recent public discussion around allegations made by Maíria Cahill has brought very sharply into public focus the fact that in a society – and at a time in the North where large sections of the population did not trust or engage with the RUC – victims of abuse were failed.”

He said there is an onus on everyone to support the victims of abuse.

Gerry Adams said that deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness last week wrote to First Minister Peter Robinson and the Taoiseach to propose the establishment – through the North/South Ministerial Council – of an all-island process to deal with the issue of support mechanisms for those who were victims of sexual abuse during the conflict.

“The objective would be to ensure greater access to counselling and other supports for victims and to facilitate victims and survivors in accessing the justice system and making official complaints.

“It would empower all victims and survivors of abuse to fully avail of existing services to get the justice they need and deserve. This needs to be a priority cross-Border initiative under the remit of the Irish Government and Northern Executive.”

● Martin McGuinness last week wrote to First Minister Peter Robinson and the Taoiseach 

The Sinn Féin President said:

“Sinn Féin and I fully endorse the proposal by Martin McGuinness. The priority must be to ensure victims and survivors have access to professional services, including counselling and therapy, and a channel through which complaints can be made to the appropriate statutory agency or police service.

“This initiative should be fully resourced by the Executive and the Irish Government. Such an initiative will support victims of abuse in all communities. The anonymity and confidentiality of victims and survivors who may not wish to be identified must be acknowledged and protected.

“That is why I believe there is an urgent need for an all-island, victim-centred process to ensure greater access to counselling and other supports for those who were victims of sexual abuse who could not access justice during the conflict.

“There is also a need to facilitate victims and survivors to access the justice system and, if they wish, to make official complaints. I believe consideration should also be given to dedicated ‘hotlines’, North and South, to facilitate victims and survivors who wish to come forward.

“Survivors must be empowered to access these services and all parties should do everything possible to ensure those survivors who want to come forward feel safe in doing so.

“Any survivor who comes forward to Sinn Féin will be immediately supported in accessing appropriate support services and the authorities.

“I have called on former IRA Volunteers who have any information on the expulsion of abusers to bring that information forward to the appropriate authorities or agencies which deal with sexual abuse cases. We are calling for all of those with information to come forward yet Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have claimed that Sinn Féin is engaged in a cover-up.

“Sinn Féin has not been involved in any cover-up of abuse. We have sought to provide clear support and advice to victims and those at risk, and we have urged anyone with information in respect of abuse to bring it to the appropriate authorities.”

Gerry Adams said that the past few weeks have seen “a barrage of malicious accusations made against republicans in a media-driven agenda encouraged by the political opponents of Sinn Féin acting as cheerleaders, judge and jury.

“There is one accusation that most, including myself, accept – Maíria Cahill was the victim of sexual abuse. I believe her.

“There are a number of elements to this case. At its core there is a young woman making an allegation of rape and sexual abuse. Maíria, like all victims and survivors, deserves our support to bring the abuser to justice.

“The other elements include an accusation that the IRA investigated the allegation of rape. This has morphed into accusations of a cover-up by Sinn Féin and from that into the charge that we facilitated sex abusers. I reject these charges. They are not true.

“Amid the tsunami of accusations, especially by the Independent Group of newspapers and from the political establishment here, the alleged abuser, the alleged rapist, Máiría’s uncle, seems to have been forgotten entirely.

“I have tried to deal with all these matters as they have been presented to me – on the one hand, with compassion and understanding for Maíria; on the other hand, robustly and honestly defending myself and Sinn Féin.

“Let me say clearly – if Sinn Féin or I were at fault I would accept and acknowledge that. But the republicans who played any part in speaking to Maíria Cahill, including myself, state with conviction that our concern was for her welfare.

“Máiría was advised to seek counselling and go to the RUC. She was an adult at that time and refused to go to the police. That was her right. She did go to the police in 2010.

“Following an investigation by the PSNI and a high-profile court case, those accused were acquitted. The recent BBC Spotlight programme subverted due process in favour of ‘trial by media’ of Pádraic Wilson, Seamus Finucane, Briege Wright, Maura McCrory, Sue Ramsey and Jennifer McCann.

“These are all decent people and upstanding Irish citizens, like the late Siobhán O’Hanlon and others. They have been smeared in a despicable way and the court acquittals of four of these have been either ignored or devalued by the media and by people in this chamber.

“The recent publications of letters from Máiría Cahill to Briege Wright demonstrate very clearly that Briege had only sought to help and support Máiría and that Máiría valued this.”

● Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin – innuendo, distortions and untruths

Gerry Adams contended that  the Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil leader had no interest in due process or in truth when it came to attacking him personally or Sinn Féin generally. Innuendo, insinuation, distortions and untruths are their preferred weapons of choice, he said.

“At the whim of the Fianna Fáil leader and An Taoiseach, there is now a five-hour debate around what are described as ‘Statements on the allegations regarding sexual abuse by members of the Provisional Republican Movement’.”

Gerry Adams said he hoped Wednesday’s debate would set a precedent for regular debates on the North and pointed out that he has been “waiting for months for the Taoiseach to bring forward a motion he promised on British Army killings of citizens in Ballymurphy”.

● Ballymurphy Massacre families at Leinster House

He added that “despite the contrived outrage and theatrics” of Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin in the Dáil, a number of Fianna Fail TDs have approached him privately to say how uncomfortable they have felt about their leader’s behaviour.

The Sinn Féin leader then turned to the Fine Gael leader.

“On October 22nd you, Taoiseach, according to renowned human rights lawyer Peter Madden, ‘set aside the judicial process and ignored the findings of a court of law’. You brought your office and the Dáil into disrepute.”

He said that for Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour politicians to feign surprise or express bogus outrage at IRA actions, “years after they occurred”, exposed their lack of sincerity.

“After decades of abandoning people in the North, today their worry is electoral. Their real focus is on the likely outcome of the next general election.”

The Sinn Féin leader said that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour TDs were in no position to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude to abuse as they had been in Government during the systematic and institutional abuse of tens of thousands of children and women over decades and during the cover-up of that abuse.

He said that since the Fine Gael/Labour Government assumed office in 2011, funding for Rape Crisis Centres, Women’s Aid refuges and other support groups have been slashed and that hundreds of women and children cannot access refuges because of lack of funding.

The Fine Gael/Labour Government promised in the Programme for Government that it would introduce consolidated domestic violence legislation to protect victims but, almost four years after they were elected, it hasn’t happened, he pointed out.

Most significantly, Gerry Adams added, the Government has failed to sign up to the European Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.

He said there is a need to resolve this matter through the relevant authorities, North and South, and that this should have been an option for all cases in the past.

He continued:

“I made an appeal for information two weeks ago. Since that appeal I have now received information from a republican source in relations to these matters. It came to me anonymously and while I cannot vouch for it, neither do I doubt its authenticity. However, that is not a judgment for me, so I have passed this information to An Garda Síochána.

“I want to appeal again to anyone with any information to come forward to the appropriate agencies. If and when I receive other information I will also give this to the Garda.”

The Sinn Féin leader said he wished Máiría Cahill well and hoped she would have happiness and completeness in her life, that she would get justice and that her alleged abuser would be brought to justice.

Gerry Adams concluded:

“I also hope that the Government acts on the proposals Sinn Féin has brought forward. These issues are bigger than party politics or the next election. I am sure all of the TDs in this chamber love and cherish their families and will do everything possible to protect their children.

“That is the instinct of the vast majority of us. It is the same for Sinn Féin members, Sinn Féin representatives and Sinn Féin voters.

“All of us will be judged not by what we say in this particular debate but what we do now and into the future to protect children and the rights of women.”