Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

Absolutely. It was appalling. The behaviour of previous Governments in this regard was appalling. To be frank, it is not too late for the religious orders to do the right thing and step up to the plate and it would be the greatest recognition of wrong if they did so. The Minister is prepared to work with the religious orders once they do the right thing and I call on them to do so. However, when one sees the behaviour of Cardinal Brady in recent times and his sloping shoulder syndrome it is regrettable. The shame is that many decent people in the Catholic Church have been tarnished by this behaviour.

This is important legislation and I support it. I acknowledge the Minister has given a clear commitment that in two years time he will review it if necessary, and the work being done by Senator McAleese may very well make such a review necessary. We will have to wait and see. I spoke to Senator McAleese recently and I know he is putting in many hours of effort to get the report done as quickly as possible. We have somebody of the highest integrity working on the report-----