Joe Behan (Wicklow, Independent)

In the short time available to me I wish to associate myself fully with the agreed motion on this dreadful and horrific history of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect perpetrated on children of this republic for almost 50 years. I welcome the attendance in the House today of representatives of survivors and join with the people of this country in offering my personal solidarity and support to them. I sincerely hope that this debate and the actions to flow from it will help in some small way to alleviate their pain.

The Ryan report presents us with a litany of abuse of the most helpless and vulnerable children in our country by those entrusted with their care. It will take many years to absorb fully the horror contained therein and I hope we will return repeatedly to its contents to remind ourselves how easy it was for power, absolute power, to be used as an instrument of unadulterated evil.

There are so many questions in my mind as I read even the executive summary of the Ryan report. In the case of the savage and grotesque litany of sexual abuse and depravity inflicted as a matter of course on so many children, we must ask and answer one fundamental question, as a matter of urgency. Why was it that those men and women entrusted with the care of innocent and vulnerable children, who proclaimed themselves to be followers of Jesus Christ, could become agents of unspeakable depravity towards those same children? Was it the case that religious life, with its power and authority, became a refuge for people with predatory sexual instincts, or was it that a life of compulsory celibacy led to the development of such instincts in some of these people? The answer to this question should inform the church authority's planning to prevent such atrocities ever occurring again.

I predict this question will arise again, even more forcefully, when the report on the Dublin archdiocese is published in the near future. I believe this report will shock us to the core all over again and will lead many Catholics to question in a very deep way whether the institutional church has betrayed the core values it hoped to espouse.

I endorse today's agreed motion and sincerely hope it will mark a significant turning point in the lives of the survivors of institutional abuse in this republic.

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