"It has impacted every part of our lives. Personal lives, work, relationships, mental health, every single part of our lives. It’s always there". Those are the words of Colin Power, one of the survivors of Bill Kenneally. I will begin by paying tribute to those sitting in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery, who suffered so much as young boys, and to all of their families, who join them in being here with us today. No words spoken in this Chamber will erase the profound hurt done to you by this man or make up for the failures of the State to protect you. You fought so hard for so long to force the authorities just to listen, to investigate and to finally bring Bill Kenneally to justice. It is a testament to each one of you that you never gave up or gave in and that you gave everything to see this day. It was a long road that you should not have had to walk and a fight you should never have had to fight, but you did so with courage, dignity and compassion, supporting one another along the way, leaning on one another in very tough times, and sticking together no matter what. You were up against it all, including the terrible pain and injustice when State authorities that should have done everything to protect you from this monster let you down catastrophically, leaving you in harm's way. Those with the power to stop Kenneally had countless opportunities to do just that, but they failed again and again. To understand the gravity of that failure, we must understand the gravity of Kenneally's evil crimes. He was a predatory sexual abuser of young boys in Waterford during the seventies and eighties, targeting boys between the ages of 11 and 17. For years, this was an open secret in Waterford. Local sporting clubs were his stalking ground, using his position in basketball, tennis and soccer clubs to lure young boys. He was an incredibly dangerous man, a predator who perfected an ability to groom, exploit and blackmail his young victims. Not only did he sexually abuse these boys, but he also tortured them psychologically. The level of depravity, perverse calculation, and heartless and soulless evil that this man perpetrated is beyond words. It was repulsive sexual abuse. He manipulated, intoxicated, isolated and blackmailed innocent boys. Kenneally was insidious. He exploited the pure innocence of these boys. Jason Clancy and Colin Power tell how Kenneally gifted them brand new Liverpool and Manchester United jerseys. To Kevin Keating, it was American football magazines. To Paul Walsh, it was Nike runners. To other boys, it was chipper food, cans of beer or lifts in his car. He repeated this modus operandi again and again. It was all cynically and demonically calculated to get close to young boys. That was the depth of Kenneally's depravity. He was allowed to run rampant throughout Waterford for years. The scale of failure documented in the report of the commission is breathtaking. The report outlines in harrowing and shocking detail how gardaí, senior church figures, school leaders, members of Kenneally's wider and very powerful family, and the South-Eastern Health Board all had opportunities to stop him but failed to take them. Each and every time, Kenneally was set free and allowed to continue abusing young boys. While the commission found no evidence of collusion or cover-up, Jason Clancy hit the nail on the head when he said, "They enabled him to run rampant through this city for four decades ... the worst paedophile in the history of the state." The repeated failures to stop Kenneally happened in an era in which failure to protect children was hardwired into how this State operated. In recent times, we have heard the trauma of the Dunderrow women and the Creagh Lane men recited again as they continue to campaign for justice. We have witnessed survivors of abuse in industrial and reformatory schools stage a 51-day hunger strike outside Leinster House just to get the Government to listen, never mind act. It was not until 2012 that Kenneally would face any form of accountability, when Jason Clancy, then a grown man, made a formal complaint against Kenneally, bravely waiving his anonymity in order to pursue full justice. He was followed by others. A brave step broke decades of State inaction but it was only the start of a long and gruelling fight for the survivors. They endured another four years of an investigation before Kenneally was finally convicted in a court of law in 2016. He was convicted of further crimes in 2023. Of course, it took many years for the commission of investigation to be established in 2018. It was another eight years before the landmark investigative report of the commission was published last month. It has been 14 years from the time Jason Clancy made his complaint to this day. Of course, the State apology today is welcome but the Government's response cannot end there. The Government must act on all of the recommendations of the commission. Crucially, it must now deliver on its promise to provide survivors with redress and compensation. It is very wrong that no steps have been taken yet to fulfil that commitment. The lip service must stop from today. Urgent steps must now be taken with survivors to appoint a mediator without any further delay. This process must be expedited to ensure full justice and redress. Baineadh amach an leithscéal seo ón Stát de bharr neart na marthanóirí fíorchróga a d'fhulaing mí-úsáid uafásach ó Bill Kenneally agus iad ina mbuachaillí óga. Ba mhí-úsáid ghnéis leanúnach é agus theip ar na húdaráis é a stopadh. Ba iad na marthanóirí a thóg é chun ceartais. Níor cheart dearmad a dhéanamh air sin riamh. On 18 June, Bill Kenneally died where he belonged - behind bars. Today, we name his evil crimes and the lifelong pain he inflicted on his victims. However, we cannot allow that horror to fully dominate the entirety of this story. The bravery, courage, resilience and refusal to give up of the men in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery today and of every victim of Bill Kenneally, including those who broke anonymity and those who did not and those who came forward and those who have not, have brought us here today. You exposed the truth. You brought Kenneally to justice. You stopped him. The State apology was not offered; it was hard-won by you for every victim of Bill Kenneally. Today, your strength, dignity and compassion shine brightly and powerfully above this darkness. To the young people in each of your lives - your sons, your daughters and your grandchildren - let me say this: I hope that, when you look at your dad's face, you see a hero, a man who faced unspeakable trauma and still found it within himself to seek truth and justice and to overcome. He did all of this not just for himself but for you too, so that you would know the lengths to which he would go to protect you - to protect any child - and to comfort and heal the young boy that still lives within him and to right a terrible wrong. That is the measure of your father. Every time he laughs or smiles, every time he holds you in his gaze, I hope you see this incredible courage, this honour and this unbreakable character. Know this too - Bill Kenneally did not win. The horror of his abuse did not win. Love won. The young boys of Waterford won. Your dad won. The past will always be there but the rest of this life belongs to him, to you and to your families because that is the future your father has made possible.

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