Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

This issue goes to the heart of what the commission can and should be able to achieve. It was the view of the Government in establishing the commission that its inquiry should focus primarily on the wrong or malfunction in the system and not on individual wrongdoers. It should determine what happened at a general level rather than making findings of abuse in individual cases. It is not for the commission to assign blame or guilt for a specific case of abuse, which is for the criminal courts. Were the commission to do so, it could prejudice any criminal proceedings. It is important that we do not turn the work of the investigation committee into mini-trials given that approximately 1,300 cases are listed. This provision will allow the commission discretion in how it does it works by focusing not on individuals but on the general system to find out what went wrong in a system that allowed abuse to take place.

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