Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

It is a relevant matter because the Schedule to the Residential Institutions Redress Act includes Protestant as well as Catholic institutions. Presumably, what we are doing here refers only to the Roman Catholic Church. No doubt the Minister will clarify all of that on Committee Stage.

Numerous allegations of child sexual abuse against members of the clergy in the archdiocese of Dublin surfaced in the late 1990s and early 2000s and culminated in the explosive "Prime Time" programme, Cardinal Sins, in October 2002. The programme revealed that there were then 450 legal actions in progress as a result of clerical child sexual abuse allegations facing the archdiocese of Dublin. The programme detailed accounts of cases of abuse by eight priests, of which at least six archbishops were aware.

The Minister, Deputy McDowell, who was Minister at the time, in The Irish Times immediately declared that he was "very alarmed" by what he had seen and he found it "deeply disturbing". To be sure, he watched the programme a second time. Furthermore, he said he would brief the Cabinet immediately on the type of inquiry to be set up. However, the proposed inquiry was disgracefully put on hold by the Minister and the Government. I will give an example that indicates the position at the time.

I put down a parliamentary question in November 2002, shortly after I became spokesperson on justice, and I know how clearly and elaborately the Minister answers such questions. He gave me a two-paragraph reply to the question but it was interesting——

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