Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It was pointed out that to do that, we would need the protection of the Constitution. That is why there has been a long delay on this issue. There has been a long-term mission to outline documents to see whether we can establish a designated statutory body with overall responsibility for collecting and sharing information with other agencies about the risk or occurrence of child sexual abuse or other forms of abuse. We have engaged in discussions with Northern Ireland to ascertain whether such a body would be established. I understand it would be easier to achieve this if we had the consolidation of our constitutional cover on it. That is part of the delay.

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