Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

Today is a day we as a nation are growing up and acknowledging that what happened in these institutions was wrong. We are shamed by what happened and owe the victims and their families a huge apology. It is critical we get something positive from this debate. We must agree and state that all the recommendations of the Ryan report will be implemented in full. I welcome the fact the Government is meeting with the religious orders and that it will seek to implement the recommendations in full.

When we look back on what happened, we see we must question and investigate how we got to that stage. Nobody is above or beyond reproach. For too many years the word of the religious was taken as their bond, but now politicians, the religious and people in all walks of life must be open to question. That is the essence of democracy.

I want to focus on two areas. I read the section of the Ryan report that referred to St. Joseph's Industrial School in Glin, which was in my region. No doubt, what happened in Glin mirrors what happened in many other industrial schools. The average age of boys committed to Glin was nine years and ten months. These were very young children and their average stay in Glin was five years and eight months. They were put into a prison type environment for that period. I have met constituents who had a family member who was sent to this school. Mr. Justice Ryan states in the report that even if crimes such as larceny, truancy and housebreaking - which may well have been motivated by poverty - are excluded from the list of offences directly attributed to poverty, it is clear that over 48% of the boys were committed to Glin as a direct consequence of their impoverished backgrounds. People are aware of the level of poverty that existed, as described in Frank McCourt's book "Angela's Ashes". People had large families and little or no education, yet young boys who were supposed to stay in school until the age of 16 were sent to Glin.

People should read the general conclusions of the Ryan report. We must acknowledge what happened before we can move forward. The report states that Glin had a severe systemic regime of corporal punishment. It points out that the Christian Brothers congregation sent two brothers to Glin despite the suspicion that they had sexually abused boys in another institution under the control of the order. It protected the congregation of brothers, but endangered the boys in Glin. The report points out that the problems affecting the standards of care in Glin persisted, despite being reported by both visitors and Department of Education inspectors. It states the Department failed in its supervisory duties, its role was protective of the institution and its response to serious complaints was cursory and dismissive. Not only were the institutions and religious orders derelict in their duty, we - the State and overseeing bodies - were remiss in our duties.

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