Fianna Fáil TD for Waterford Mary Butler has personally apologised for any “trauma, distress or hurt” that she has caused Bill Kenneally’s abuse survivors.
However, Ms Butler, who is the Government Chief Whip and a Minister of State, stopped short of saying the Fianna Fáil party would issue its own apology to the survivors.
In a lengthy interview on WLR’s Déise Today programme, Ms Butler also confirmed that Kenneally’s cousin, former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally, is no longer a member of the party.
She said Brendan Kenneally “voluntarily” resigned his membership earlier this week.
It comes after the Commission of Investigation set up to examine the handling of Bill Kenneally’s abuse published its final report last week.
The findings of the report were particularly critical of the senior gardaí who led the investigation into Kenneally back in the 1980s as well as the South Eastern Health Board and Brendan Kenneally.
The chair of the Commission of Investigation, retired Central Criminal Court judge Michael White, found there was no direct evidence of Brendan Kenneally knowing about the sexual abuse prior to 2001.
Mr White also said he could not definitively establish knowledge by Brendan Kenneally of the abuse prior to 2001.
However, the judge found Brendan Kenneally’s subsequent actions fell substantially below the standards he would expect from a TD of his experience after he was informed of the allegations for the first time in August 2001.
This morning, Ms Butler said she was “heartbroken” and “sorry” as the current “highest ranking Fianna Fáil member in Waterford”.
“I’m vice president of the party representing the TDs, I am the Minister for Mental Health, but first and foremost, I’m a mother, and I’m a Fianna Fáil TD in Waterford,” she said.
“I apologise on my own behalf if there is anything I have ever done that caused trauma, distress or hurt for any of the victims of Bill Kenneally.
“I reiterate once again, I have never met him. I was in school while these men were being abused, but if I fell short in my duties as a TD, I once again apologise.”
During the interview, Ms Butler was pressed by Deise Today presenter Damien Tiernan as to whether or not the Fianna Fáil party would issue an apology to the survivors.
“But do I believe that the party should apologise? So, for new TDs that were elected a year-and-a half ago, for the very first time, that were not born in 1987, are they complicit in this? They are not,” she said.
Ms Butler said: “There was a disgraceful dereliction of duty shown in the report. Bill Kenneally’s victims were failed by the State in the worst possible way for many years.”
She said that the State apology that the survivors are due to receive “encompasses all of the State’s failings at the time”.
Ms Butler also said that it was an “error of judgement” to have have had Brendan Kenneally out canvassing with her in 2016 and again in 2020.
Bill Kenneally was serving 19 years in prison for the abuse of 15 young boys
She said: “I have never met Bill Kenneally in my life. I rented an office from Brendan Kenneally. I voluntarily vacated that office in 2020. I dealt with the situation in 2020.”
Ms Butler also said that she had apologised that Brendan Kenneally had canvassed the wife of one of the victims.
“I am sorry to my heart that that happened. I will take it to my grave that that happened. It was triggering, it was upsetting, it was traumatic,” she said.
“I vacated the office at that time, but I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say, because in Ireland we do not live in a country where you are guilty by association.”
Ms Butler was also asked why after the revelations first came to light, she never launched any internal investigations and why she did not ask Brendan Kenneally to leave the Fianna Fáil party.
She said: “You are of the opinion that I had a very close working relationship with Brendan Kenneally. You are completely wrong on that.
“I rarely spoke to Brendan Kenneally. I was a TD for Waterford. I was the chair of the Oireachtas Committee for Business, Enterprise and Innovation. I was chair of all-party committee for dementia. I was spokesperson for older people, and I was doing my job.
“If you think or imagine that Brendan Kenneally, who lost his seat in 2011, was part of my inner workings as a TD, you are wrong,” Ms Butler said.
She said it was not a matter for her but a matter for the courts and the Commission of Investigation to carry out any investigations into the handling of Bill Kenneally’s abuse.
Convicted paedophile Kenneally died in prison yesterday 10 years into a 19-year sentence for the abuse of 15 young boys in Waterford between 1979 and 1990 following two criminal prosecutions.
A number of his survivors, many of whom had waived their right to anonymity in campaigning to get the Commission of Investigation established, said the death of their abuser had brought them closure.
Read: Truth about Bill Kenneally lay hidden for over 28 years