The Sisters of Mercy have found no evidence on their files of "complaints, concerns, suspicions of any form of child abuse". Nor was there evidence "of any ongoing systematic physical or psychological abuse of children" in residential institutions run by them.
Sister Breege O'Neill, congregational leader of the order, also told the investigation committee of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse yesterday that "in the absence of records we relied heavily on the recollections of sisters and people in the institutions for our knowledge (of such abuse)".
She also said delays experienced by people seeking information from the files gave rise to a view that the congregation was trying not to give it. "The truth was we didn't have the information," she said.
Then, in the mid-1990s, they had no central archive or administration, with each convent autonomous. Structural reorganisation, already begun then, meant that now they had an information system in place.
Within 20 years of being established in 1831, the congregation had convents in all 26 dioceses in Ireland and was involved with orphanages from early on.
After the Industrial Schools Act of 1868, they changed designation of eight of these orphanages to such schools, and opened two more. By 1884 they were running 27 industrial schools involving 2,246 children.
In 1941 that figure was 2,522. In 1971 they were running 16 industrial schools with 576 children, 241 boys and 335 girls. In 1977 care of the children was transferred to health boards, with the last transferred last year.
There were, she estimated, "between 100 and 150 children" in each school, being cared for by four or five people, two to three of whom were sisters, working "seven days a week, 24 hours a day". Lack of training "was maybe most stark for us".
She acknowledged that the atmosphere and daily set-up in the institutions was not conducive or helpful where the emotional needs or development of individual identity of the children were concerned.
"I would recognise there was a harshness," she said. But she "wouldn't accept the more serious allegations".
The congregation had become aware of abuse in the institutions "mainly through the public domain". She mentioned Paddy Doyle's book, The God Squad ((1988), and the book You May Talk Now by Mary Muldrennan, dealing with Mercy institutions. In 1996 there was the Dear Daughter programme about Goldenbridge orphanage in Dublin.
The congregation had been made aware of the programme a short time before it was broadcast. They hired a childcare specialist to investigate its allegations, who found these were "broadly credible".
The impact of the programme was like "a tidal wave came over us", she said. "We had held a particular picture of ourselves, of our involvement with children. Dear Daughter shattered that."
They didn't know how to deal with the allegations and were in shock and denial. There was "dismay, and huge hurt within the congregation for people coming forward with stories".
The congregation accepted fully its responsibility for abuse that occurred in its instutions, but other agencies had a responsibility as well. A lack of funding and a lack of staff contributed to the overall situation, she said.
