A 1955 memo from an official at the Department of Education, concerning a residential institution for children, said "the wonderful conditions in which the cattle are kept in marked contrast to the care and feeding of the boys."
The then assistant secretary at the Department was refuting complaints about lack of funding by the religious congregation which ran the institution.
The Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, said yesterday he had seen the memo when he was Minister for Education and Science, between June 1997 and January 2000.
He was giving evidence to the investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Dublin, explaining the background to the Taoiseach's May 1999 apology to people who had spent their childhood in such institutions. The official, whose memo he spoke of, and the institution concerned were not named. Both will emerge in proceedings.
Details of abuse in institutions emerged mainly through the media and the RTÉ States of Fear programme (April 1999) in particular, he said. He remarked that one of the strongest influences on him in dealing with the issue had been a meeting with survivors in early 1999. They looked him in the eye and he was asked "Minister do you believe us? Say you believe us".
By early 1998 he had become aware of abuse allegations in the institutions, due to an increase both in litigation by survivors and in Freedom of Information requests concerning the institutions. He said the 1996 RTÉ Dear Daughter programme dealing with Goldenbridge Orphanage, seemed to have encouraged survivors to speak out.
He confirmed to Mr Frank Clarke SC, for the committee, that the matter of abuse was first raised at a Cabinet meeting on March 31st, 1998, when he gave a briefing about the increase in litigation relating to the institutions. A Cabinet sub-committee was set up to establish how best to deal with the issue, as was an inter-departmental working group.
The latter reported back to the Cabinet sub-committee in April 1999, recommending an apology by the Taoiseach on behalf of the State and the setting up of a child abuse commission.
He said his own views would not have differed from those of the Department of Education secretary general Mr John Dennehy, of the working group that, whereas particular allegations were not proven in a court of law, "the generality of the cases were true."
He had spoken to the Taoiseach and Cabinet colleagues about his meeting with survivors. At the time false memory syndrome was becoming a focus of attention. The survivors felt isolated and that people genuinely didn't believe them.
On May 10th he recommended the apology to Cabinet as well as the setting up of a commission on child abuse, adjusting the Statute of Limitations to avoid court actions by survivors being frustrated, and the setting up of a national counselling service.
