AARON KENT
Councillor Mary Roche spoke at the June Plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council regarding the publication of the report on the crimes of Bill Kenneally.
Waterford Council passed a motion in 2018 calling on the Justice Minister to progress the commission of enquiry immediately, when there arose some doubt that the commission could advance due to legal issues. Three of the survivors were present at that meeting of Waterford Council, where they are reported to have received a standing ovation.
The Kenneally report was not a full agenda item at June’s meeting of Waterford’s Plenary Council. It is understood that there was an effort to give the report substantial time but this effort was ultimately unsuccessful.
To be fair, the 417 page report had only been published two days before the meeting, and the agenda is set and agreed in advance.
In lieu of an open discussion, Cllr Mary Roche addressed the chamber regarding the publication.
“Mayor, I know it’s not usual at the Plenary but I just wanted to note the publication of the White report on the sexual abuse of Bill Kenneally and the 6 Waterford men who went public. Just to acknowledge that they had been vindicated and yet they were very badly let down,” she acknowledged.
“We passed a motion unanimously here in this chamber a number of years ago supporting those men and their calls for an enquiry. It has now been published and I just think it’s important that we acknowledge that, and congratulate them and acknowledge how brave they were and how difficult a thing it was that they did, with a very small bit of help from this chamber in terms of giving it a push.
“This is a red letter day in the history of court cases of sexual abuse and hopefully it will lead to a change in the law,” she continued. “So that this kind of thing can never happen again, or if it does it will be punished.
This drew a round of applause from all sides of the chamber.
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