Minister for Finance confirms he had knowledge of abuse allegations at foster home

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has revealed that he had knowledge about the abuse allegations at a foster home in the southeast of the country a number of years ago.

Mr Noonan recently confirmed to RTE that he did indeed receive a letter outlining the abuse by a foster father at the centre of the controversy almost 20 years ago back in 1996. Mr Noonan told RTE that although he received the letter he “had no clear memory of it” until he reviewed records recently.

Mr Noonan explained: “I did check the position with the Department of Health and seemingly two letters arrived – one to me and one to the junior minister of health Austin Currie.” “And the letter to me, I got my officials to contact the southeastern health board and my understanding of it was that the person would be removed from foster care, but subsequently, information came through that there was some kind of appeal, and that that [the removal of the person] didn’t happen.”

The Finance Minister went onto say that after the “data” was sent to the Minister for State at the time, he had himself had no further involvement the case. Mr Noonan said: “After that, because it was concerning the possible abuse of a child, the data went to the Minister of State who had responsibility for Children , and I’m not sure what happened after that.”

The HSE did not tell the family of a woman with severe intellectual disabilities of its concerns about a risk to her of sexual abuse at a foster home in which she was staying because its legal advice was not to do so.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) it was the HSE’s legal advice that, because there was a report being compiled for it on allegations that another woman in the foster home - being referred to as Grace- was subject to sexual abuse, the HSE could not tell the second woman’s family the details of its concerns about the foster home.

The second woman, being referred to as Ann, continued to stay at the former foster home in the south east four years after the HSE had removed the last vulnerable adult it had placed there (Grace).

Ann went to the home for 21 years, between 1992, when she was 12, until October 2013. She spent 12 nights per fortnight in the home until the HSE eventually insisted her family stop placing her there, the Oireachtas committee was told.

Ann was brought there privately by her family, going home every second weekend and continued to stay at the home despite the fact that Grace had been removed in 2009 amid serious concerns about alleged rape and neglect.

The removal of Grace occurred 13 years after the HSE had ceased all new placements in the home due to the alleged abuse concerns.

The HSE had said Grace was the last person placed in the home. However, last weekend it emerged another vulnerable adult, Ann, had been staying there, though had not been placed there by the HSE.