Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

I return to what I said about Ms Justice Laffoy's resignation. I firmly believe that if the Department gave her the proper resources to carry out the work that we could have full hearings for everybody concerned within a reasonable period of time and we would not have this problem. If I was raped or assaulted or my school friend was thrown out a window — some of the accusations made in regard to Artane — I would like my story to be told. In such circumstances, no one should dare say to me that my story or my interpretation of one individual's role in an institution is not as important as that of somebody else. My experience and pain would be mine: I would have suffered it. Nobody could tell me that my pain was irrelevant. That will be the effect of this sort of selectivity. At the very least the Government should simply explain that because of a lack of resources and the time delay it cannot afford to go into the minutiae of every single experience and this is why we are doing it. One may not like it but at least it is a reason. At present, one does not know whether a person is prejudiced in terms of the role of the investigative committee, why it makes a decision and why person is excluded. Perhaps person is a little more aggressive. People may not be able to deal with their anger or their experiences. Maybe we do not want to have to deal with them in an inquiry. That is the reason criteria should be set out.

There is another reason, and this is the flip side of the coin, which is that individuals who have been affected by their experiences have accused people within the Minister's Department of being paedophiles. In a small number of cases people have been wrongfully accused of having committed acts on individuals who are making complaints. To find the absolute truth of what happened one needs to examine every story. There is always a case where one small chink of information sends the committee on a different route and gets additional information that may help to prove a person's innocence. The commission should be all-inclusive and all encompassing and, if not, proper criteria should be laid down so that one is seen to be fair and transparent and people can trust the process.

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