Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I apologise that I was not present when the debate started. I was meeting with survivors of child abuse in the Ferns context and the meeting went on slightly longer than I had hoped. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, has put the point fairly and squarely. To do what Deputy Costello is suggesting would be unnecessary. It was not done in the 1995 legislation. In all of the circumstances it will not have the effects that "Judge Costello" mentions.

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