Hunger striker receives ?150,000 for abuse

Monday November 29th 2004

AN abuse victim who staged a 22-day hunger strike outside the Dail has received awards totalling ?150,000 and an apology from the Christian Brothers.

The State has paid ?113,000 to Tom Sweeney with ?37,000 coming from the Christian Brothers. Costs and interest have also been paid.

Mr Sweeney, who suffered abuse at Artane Industrial School and St Joseph's Industrial School in Salthill, Co Galway, went originally to the High Court.

With the passing of the Redress Act, he took his case to the Redress Board, having been advised that he would get adequate compensation through the new legislation.

Mr Sweeney's original testimony to the Redress Board, giving his account of five years of abuse, was accepted and he was offered ?113,000.

But when he opted for a full hearing in order to tell his story, the award was cut to ?67,000. He refused this, withdrew and eventually started his hunger strike in May of this year.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, and the Taoiseach's office, became involved in negotiations, as did his local representative, Charlie O'Connor.

Eventually, the State, through the then Education Minister Noel Dempsey, agreed to "reactivate" the original High Court action and allow a financial settlement to be made. This persuaded Mr Sweeney to give up the demonstration outside the gates of Leinster House.

He received the money several weeks ago but had to wait until last week for the text of the apology, only part of which had been read to him previously. This apologised for the hurt he experienced whilst at Artane and St Joseph's.

The "hurt" included physical abuse in Artane and physical and sexual abuse in Galway over a five-year period.

Subsequently six Christian Brothers, who had worked at Salthill, were charged with abuse offences.

Mr Sweeney asked several times for the release of the text of the apology. When he received it last week, he claims it contained details of a confidentiality agreement, terms which, he says, were not pointed out to him at the time.

The document goes on to say that, in the event of publication of the apology and payment details, the Christian Brothers have the right to comment on the settlement.

Bruce Arnold

? Irish Independent
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/