John Moloney (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I regret the need for such a report but having read it, it is clear there is such a need. I support the suggestion made by Deputy Enright some time ago that perhaps the appropriate forum in which to debate the report and to go through the recommendations is a committee of the Joint Committees on Health and Children and Education and Science. As Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, I would welcome that.

I do not want to throw out the old cliche which has been thrown out but it is worth mentioning that many people, who gave their lives voluntarily over the years to work within the clergy and who have acted properly, unfortunately feel condemned. It is our duty to follow the recommendations in the report but it is important to recognise at every opportunity the huge input of clergy over the years. I was in a boarding school run by clergy for five years and saw at first-hand the commitment of the Patrician Brothers in Ballyfin and throughout the State. While it might be taking away from the time allocated to me to speak on the report, it is, nevertheless, important to say that.

The report highlights the need for us to change drastically, and I refer specifically to school management, management boards and the input of clergy to those boards. I believe the debate will now widen. Times of yore have long passed and the issues raised by this report must be addressed immediately not only to restore confidence in the system for those who have been abused but for wider public as well.

I pay tribute to Bishop Walsh on the way he handled this report and the fact he went to Ferns not armed with anything extra but was able to come to terms and to deal with the issues and to be seen as an open and transparent representative of the church. I also congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, on the way he presented the report. He has acted properly at all times.

The issue of Canon Law versus State law has come to the fore. There has been much confusion and doubt about the importance of Canon Law. It is now recognised that State law comes first and that Canon Law can never impede it or act as a cover for those who claim such cover.

As we progress through the issues, it is important we focus on the role of the State and the church in education. We must recognise the great hurt caused to those who suffered, to those who tried to make it public and to those who tried to change the system so such hurt would not continue and people would be brought to buck but who were, unfortunately, dismissed over the years. I pay tribute to the courage, strength and integrity of each person who suffered the worst forms of abuse and who subsequently came forward and gave evidence to the Ferns Inquiry. Even though the hurt has been proven it has, nevertheless, taken years for the authorities and for us to believe such hurt could be caused. Unfortunately, the torture inflicted on these people may not ease with time and will continue to haunt them. As a parent, one can only begin to imagine the pain visited on the victims of abuse and the families who suffered as a result by those who were unfortunately, in many cases, put on a pedestal by society.

Reading the report is, to say the least, startling. Each of the 260 odd pages of the report is more horrific than the preceding one. Over a 40-year period, 21 priests operating in the diocese of Ferns faced over 100 allegations of child sex abuse. I have learned from the first-hand experience of Members from the Wexford constituency. Only a few minutes ago, Deputy Howlin referred to the involvement of Fr. Seán Fortune in the 1983 referendum. That focuses our attention on how people put on a pedestal or in authority can abuse it and cause considerable hurt. It is only now we have come to realise that.

The church's response to allegations of clerical sexual abuse was wholly inadequate. The guardians of morality in our society failed to live up to the high standards they often put forward for the rest of society. Children are surely the most vulnerable in society and rather than shield them from the possibility of abuse, the church, in many instances, merely shifted the problem to some other parish. This was certainly a case of hear no evil, see no evil. Where serious allegations of abuse were made, the hierarchy chose to bury their heads in the sand in the hope the problem would simply go away. The Ferns Report showed that when problems arose, they did not go away. Simply transferring a priest did not resolve the problem. If the Ferns Report is a forerunner of reports to come, we must act immediately. In that regard, I congratulate the Government on accepting all the recommendations in the Ferns Report. Confirmation has now been sought from the Bishops' Conference that the recommendations in the report will be implemented collectively and individually, which I welcome.

What has shocked most members of the public is the distance the hierarchy managed to put between itself and its congregations. Protection has been the name of the game and that must be resolved. It was a case of admitting to nothing and praying the issue would blow over. In times of grief and distress, we all want to call on a priest but in the case of clerical abuse, the hierarchy chose to ignore these calls. Unfortunately, whether unable or unwilling, the evidence suggests that successive Bishops of Ferns fumbled when dealing with this most sensitive issue.

We must move on to being judged by those who have been abused. We must show our commitment as legislators that we are taking the recommendations seriously. It is important not only to say we are taking them seriously but to act on those recommendations immediately and put in place procedures. We must create a culture of belief when people are courageous enough to come forward rather than dismiss it as an attack on some other authority. We must gain public confidence that this State has learned from what has emerged from the Ferns Report and is making a steadfast commitment to ensure issues raised in the report are dealt with.

The power of the church must be examined because for decades the church failed to act. It is guilty of letting its congregation down. The church failed the overwhelming majority of nuns and priests who gave their lives to their vocation and their communities. Priests who have given their lives in service of their parishes have been jeered and called paedophiles, child abusers and so on. However, in the rush to condemn, difficulties have been visited on hundreds of priests who have been accused of similar behaviour. Most of those who take up a vocation forego lucrative incomes in the private sector. Many of them attend third level for the same number of years as students who qualify in the fields of law and medicine. We should recognise they chose the religious life and the vast majority of them are not guilty of child abuse.

Society as a whole, however, also shares the blame for the years of silence regarding child abuse. It is not good enough to say the State agencies were powerless to act such was the power of the church. Garda notes are missing in a number of cases and, for example, the Southern Health Board failed to act when notified of abuse. All citizens are equal in the eyes of the law and for too long one's position in society earned one a right to protection from the law. This should never be allowed to happen again.

I pay tribute to Mr. Justice Francis Murphy and the other members of the inquiry team. They gave more than their professional time to the inquiry. Following much turmoil and personal angst, they have delivered a comprehensive and devastating report into clerical sex abuse in the diocese of Ferns. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Minister of State at the Department, Deputy Brian Lenihan, deserve great credit for the way they have handled this matter. The Minister and the Cabinet displayed great courage by establishing this inquiry more than two and a half years ago. The Minister of State has exercised a safe pair of hands in dealing with matters in recent months and he has been open and proper in all his dealings.

I also pay tribute to Bishop Walsh who has ensured, since taking over as apostolic administrator in 2002, that steps have been taken to protect children effectively. It is regrettable that there was a necessity for such an inquiry and report but clearly the need was there and it is up to us to prove our commitment to those who were abused by acting immediately on all the recommendations.

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