Taoiseach issues State apology to victims of paedophile Bill Kenneally over Garda failures

Kenneally, a former basketball coach in Waterford, was convicted of a string of sexual offences against boys committed between 1979 and 1990. He was sentenced to almost 19 years in prison and died in custody last month, having served just over half of his term.

The Commission also heard evidence relating to further allegations, not tried in court, spanning a period of abuse stretching from 1970 to 1993 — meaning, as the Taoiseach noted, that successive generations of boys in the Waterford area were exposed to risk over nearly a quarter of a century.

A litany of institutional failure

The Commission’s report set out in stark detail how Kenneally operated: grooming children through trust, gifts, alcohol and money, while also using fear and manipulation to control them. He was also found to have photographed a number of his victims in compromising positions and to have used those photographs to blackmail them into silence.

Central to the report was its examination of how the State responded when concerns first surfaced. As early as late 1987, information about Kenneally’s conduct had reached two senior Garda officers, other members of An Garda Síochána, a school principal, a retired politician, a senior clergyman, a psychiatrist and the parents of some victims. Despite this, the abuse continued for a further 25 years, only coming to an end after victim Jason Clancy made a formal complaint to Gardaí in December 2012.

The Taoiseach told the Dáil that the 1987 Garda investigation had been found by the Commission to be unprofessional, rushed and inappropriate, and that Kenneally could and should have been arrested at that time on suspicion of false imprisonment and indecent assault — a step that would likely have led to the discovery of the incriminating photographs during a search of his home and car.

He confirmed the Commission’s finding that the response of then acting Chief Superintendent Cashman, and to a lesser extent acting Superintendent P.J. Hayes, amounted to a clear and serious dereliction of duty, even measured against the standards of the era.

Findings against former TDs

The report also made adverse findings against two former members of the Oireachtas. Billy Kenneally Snr, a former TD and uncle of Bill Kenneally, was found to have been informed of his nephew’s activities in 1987, while his son, Brendan Kenneally, later a TD, was found by Mr Justice White to have fallen substantially short of the standards expected of a public representative in his handling of the matter in 2001 — including a failure to refer the case for a child protection risk assessment.

Together with a third relative, Monsignor Shine, the Commission found that all three had prioritised shielding the family from exposure over protecting children, including through a psychiatric referral used as what the report described as a “smokescreen”.

The Taoiseach expressed profound regret that two former public representatives from his own party had, in his words, comprehensively failed to protect children from a family member.

The apology

Addressing survivors directly, including named victims Jason Clancy, Paul Walsh, Kevin Keating, Colin Power, Barry Murphy, Simon O’Toole and Gerard Mullane, as well as 22 further witnesses who gave evidence anonymously, the Taoiseach apologised unreservedly on behalf of the State for what he described as a clear and serious dereliction of duty. He also extended his apology to those victims who had chosen not to come forward to the Commission at all.

He said the report stood as a warning of the consequences that flow when those in positions of authority fail to act, while noting that legislative and institutional responses to child sexual abuse had changed beyond recognition since the 1980s.

Minister for Justice responds

Speaking after the Taoiseach, Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration Jim O’Callaghan echoed the apology and said the Garda failures identified in the report weighed particularly heavily on him given his political responsibility for An Garda Síochána. He described the 1987 failure to properly investigate, arrest, and search the home of Kenneally as a stain on the force’s history, and said the informal approach taken at the time — including engagement with Kenneally’s politically connected relatives — went well beyond naivety.

The Minister confirmed he had accepted the report’s finding regarding the Chief Superintendent’s dereliction of duty and said the resulting misjudgement of Kenneally’s reoffending risk had directly enabled further abuse that could otherwise have been prevented.

Misconduct in public office referred to Law Reform Commission

Both the Taoiseach and the Minister highlighted one of Mr Justice White’s key recommendations: that Ireland currently has no criminal offence capturing serious dereliction of duty by a public official that falls short of a deliberate perversion of the course of justice. The Attorney General has now formally referred the matter to the Law Reform Commission under section 4 of the Law Reform Commission Act 1975.

Minister O’Callaghan said the Attorney General had specifically asked the Commission to examine the current status of the pre-1937 common law offence in Irish law, whether a statutory offence of misconduct in public office, including by omission, could be created, and what its likely ingredients, advantages and disadvantages would be. The Law Reform Commission has been asked to engage with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and An Garda Síochána and to report back within nine months.

Civil proceedings and redress

The Taoiseach noted that some victims have already issued civil proceedings against An Garda Síochána over its dereliction of duty, and said he wanted to see those and any future claims resolved as quickly and fairly as possible. Separately, officials in the Department of Justice are examining options for redress outside the litigation process for those who gave evidence to the Commission.

Minister O’Callaghan said he had instructed officials to begin work on securing compensation for those affected by the failures identified in the report, with the details to be developed in consultation with victims. He said his preference was for a mediated resolution that would spare survivors further lengthy legal proceedings.

Both the Taoiseach and the Minister paid tribute to Mr Justice White and his predecessor, Judge Hickson, for their work compiling the report, which they said had provided victims with long-sought answers and, in the Minister’s words, had been conducted with sensitivity despite the difficulty of the subject matter.