Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I am only starting what I wish to say in this debate. There is more involved than just the people we have mentioned. Far worse than the Catholic church are these shady organisations which wield influence behind our backs in ways of which the public is unaware.

I reject calls for balance in this debate. There is no balance. This is about imbalance. It is about power and influence hammering, raping and brutalising young children. There is no balance in that and there never will be. However, I must finish by stating there are decent, good and honourable people in the clergy and the religious orders who have been tainted and hurt by this. We stand by those people. They are good people. There are also Christian organisations, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Legion of Mary and so forth, which do extraordinarily good work. We should honour them, but there can be no balance about the imbalance in how these children were treated.