The Farrelly Commission is a State investigation into alleged physical and sexual abuse at a foster home in the southeast of the country.
It is chaired by its sole member, senior counsel Marjorie Farrelly, and follows a number of Health Service Executive reports into the same case.
The commission was established in Spring 2017 and was asked to examine two specific issues - the 'Grace' case and separate allegations surrounding 47 other foster placements at the same home over the same period.
The 'Grace' case phase of the commission, which concluded today, specifically focused on concerns over how a non-verbal woman with severe intellectual and physical disabilities, given the pseudonym Grace, was placed in a home between 1989 and 2009.
It separately concluded that the planned second phase of investigation into the placement of 47 other children at the home should not now go ahead.
From 1995 to present: A timeline of events
In 1995, on the back of claims Grace suffered abuse in her foster home, the South Eastern Health Board decided not to place any more people in the home.
However, a decision to remove Grace was overturned in 1996, for still unknown reasons.
As a result, Grace stayed in the home until a whistleblower's complaint in 2009, relating to allegations Grace had been physically and sexually abused.
The concerns raised by the whistleblower resulted in a number of HSE reports into what happened, including the report by Senior Counsel Conor Dignam into the allegations and the process for how Grace was placed at the home and was not removed when placements ended in the mid-1990s.
The Dignam report, which was not formally published until 2016, concluded: "These are all allegations of the most serious nature and it seems to me that they should have been required to have been inquired into fully and expeditiously in the interests of Grace, all of those other service users, the relationship between the HSE and the service provider and the persons against whom allegations were implicitly or expressly made."
Politicians who had become aware of the case before the Dignam report was concluded raised the issue repeatedly in 2014 and 2015.
They included the then Dáil Public Accounts Committee chair, Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness, and vice-chair, former Fine Gael TD John Deasy.
Due to mounting pressure over the case, on 2 February 2016, then taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny confirmed he would establish a commission of investigation into the case if re-elected.
This announcement delayed the expected calling of the general election by 24 hours.
At the time of the commitment to launch a commission of investigation, Mr Kenny told the Dáil: "Those who left her [Grace] to her fate pressed the mute button on her young life and appalling experience. Above all, they pressed that mute button on her dignity, her humanity, on her civil and human rights.
"The question is, in ticking its boxes, was the system blind, was the system deaf, did the system possess so little awareness, so little accountability, that it could become a stone to Grace, to her abject experience, to her desperate need?"
In 2017, the High Court awarded Grace a settlement worth more than €6 million. The court's then president described her treatment as a scandal.
The Commission of Investigation began its work in May 2017 and was due to publish its final report the following year, in May 2018.
However, due to the scale of the investigation, it made repeated extension requests with deadlines of May 2019, May 2020, July 2020, October 2021, October 2022, March 2024 and September 2024 all passing without a conclusion to phase one - the 'Grace' phase - of the investigation.
In that time, two interim reports were published.
In relation to the placement of Grace at the home and why she was not removed in the mid-1990s when concerns were first raised, these reports said: "Evidence on the rationale for the decision was weak and confused."
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Follow live updates as 'Grace' report is published
In January 2022, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided against prosecuting individuals in relation to the case.
It was reported at the time that gardaí had recommended prosecutions for endangerment and negligence in a file sent to the DPP.
A final report of the first phase of the Farrelly Commission, which specifically examined the 'Grace' case allegations and why she was placed in the home and not removed until 2009, was published today.
The near 2,000-page €13m investigation said it cannot establish that marks and bruises on her were the result of serious physical or sexual abuse.
The Commission was satisfied that there was neglect in the standard of care provided to Grace, in relation to her general care, dental care and personal hygiene.
It has also said there was a level of financial mismanagement or abuse in relation to Grace's disability allowance
And it found that there was an "absence of oversight and monitoring of Grace in her placement".
It separately concluded that the planned second phase of investigation into the placement of 47 other children at the home should not now go ahead.
