The CEO of one of the country's largest children's charity has said there is "no money" that will compensate somebody who has suffered to the extent that Grace has been abused.
Yesterday, a HSE-funded settlement package worth €6.3m was approved for a woman with serious intellectual disabilities known as Grace. The woman was left in the care of a foster family for 20 years in an allegedly abusive situation.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, CEO of Barnardos Fergus Finlay said its imperative that the state protects people like Grace, but yet the state has failed to do so once again.
"It's very hard to use the word 'lucky' in respect of somebody like Grace," he said. "But in one sense she has been lucky because there is one person who has been a whistleblower, and there has been a service provider who has provided exemplary care to Grace."
Finlay said he was confident now that nothing would happen to Grace "behind closed doors anymore". However, he stressed the importance of the commission of inquiry into the case.
"The HSE is going to have to account for its actions, its inactions, its sins of omission and its sins of commission.
"There were cover-ups in this case [...] There is going to be a huge, blinding light shone on what happened here."
You can listen back to the full interview below.
