Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Those in a position of authority in the Catholic church and those who perpetrated the appalling abuse graphically described in the Murphy commission report deserve our condemnation. It is right we react with horror to these revelations. It is also essential the Garda does everything possible to achieve justice for the victims of abuse. There must be no impunity for the perpetrators of abuse or for those who covered up and facilitated abuse by moving abusive priests from one parish to another. The Government must also take seriously calls for the Murphy commission to investigate other dioceses in addition to the Cloyne diocese.

We should also remember the Catholic church authorities exercise their mandate throughout the whole island of Ireland. No redress board has been established to pay compensation to victims of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland nor has a commission been established to investigate allegations of child abuse by priests there. There is no reason to believe that clerical sexual abuse stopped at the Border.

I am calling on the Government to engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State and with Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland. We have an interest in this State to ensure justice is done for all who lived on this island. Deputy Ó Snodaigh of Sinn Féin on Tuesday was remarkably silent on this issue.

The Murphy commission report not only documents the failings of the church but also the failings of the State and its agencies. The Murphy commission records that it wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome in September 2006 seeking important information but received no reply. It further records the congregation contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs stating the commission had not gone through appropriate diplomatic channels. It did so, I understand, in March 2007, some six months after the Murphy commission wrote to it. The Taoiseach told the House on Tuesday this response was furnished to the Murphy commission. It appears there was no further communication involving the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The commission also reports that it wrote to the papal nuncio twice. He has explained his failure to reply on the basis he was only appointed to Ireland in April 2008 and had no information he could give to the commission. Surprisingly, the Taoiseach in the House on Tuesday excused the conduct of both the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the papal nuncio. He was defending the indefensible. By his words he was not, as Taoiseach of this Republic, acting in the interests of our people but displaying in this House the undue deference to those in church authority which has been justifiably criticised in recent days.

It is a scandal the congregation and the Vatican relied on diplomatic protocol to avoid providing information to the Murphy commission. In his convoluted defence of what occurred, the Taoiseach did not adequately explain why the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, failed to follow up the letter received by his Department and ensure that the Murphy commission received the information and documentation it was seeking. The only conclusion that can be reached is that this failure to act was another example of undue deference being shown to Rome by an Irish Government Minister.

Protocol, whether real or imagined, was given greater priority by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith than was the welfare of children. With regard to the Papal Nuncio, no issue of protocol prevented his responding to the Murphy commission by letter, even as a matter of courtesy. If he personally had no documentation or information to furnish, he could have said so. He could also have facilitated the work of the commission by asking his predecessor what assistance he could give to it. That the Taoiseach should defend the Papal Nuncio's failures in this context is beyond comprehension.

The Papal Nuncio is the Vatican's ambassador to this State. I believe he and the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith should be invited to a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children to address the issues raised by the Murphy commission and that the committee should explore what can be done to ensure his and the Vatican's full co-operation with the commission in the current investigation into the diocese of Cloyne and in any future investigations in other dioceses. I hope the Papal Nuncio, who is after all regarded by this State as head of the diplomatic corps and essentially primus inter pares, will co-operate. In most countries that do not have a special relationship with the Vatican, the head of the diplomatic corps is normally the longest serving ambassador. This should be the position in this Republic. If the age of undue deference is truly over, the Papal Nuncio should not be treated with any more or less respect than the ambassadors of other States with whom we have diplomatic relations.

In a speech he delivered on the steps of Government buildings on the day the Murphy commission report was published, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, surfing the wave of justifiable public outrage, cynically presented himself in heroic guise criticising church authorities and the priests who preyed on young children. He stated:

It is not now - nor has it ever been - acceptable that institutions behave or are treated as above the law of the State. This is a Republic - the people are sovereign - and no institution, no agency, no church can be immune from that fact.

This would have been impressive were it not coming from a Minister whose Fianna Fáil Party has been in Government for 20 of the past 22 years and which is responsible for our current seriously dysfunctional and chaotic child protection system. The scandalous culture of secrecy, cover-up and absence of accountability for which the Roman Catholic Church is justifiably criticised is endemic in the State's child protection services.

David Foley was 14 years old when, in 2002, he arrived at Dublin's Pearse Street Garda station reporting trouble at home and seeking help. Instead of getting the care he needed, he ended up in an emergency care hostel as part of an out-of-hours service. On 10 September 2005, almost three years after he entered the care system, David Foley, then 17 years of age, was found dead from a drug overdose in an apartment in Dublin's inner city. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, then Minister of State with responsibility for children, asked the HSE to conduct an internal inquiry into the care provided to David Foley. It is believed that a report of that inquiry was furnished to the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Deputy Barry Andrews, in December 2008. Despite numerous promises made by him, the report remains unpublished and secret.

Tracy Fay was placed in the care of the State when she was aged 14 years. A series of recommendations for her to be professionally assessed were not properly implemented and she went through a series of chaotic emergency care placements. In January 2002, four years after being admitted to care, she died of a drug overdose. Despite serial promises, the completed internal HSE report into her death remains unpublished and secret.

In September 2006, Melissa Mahon, aged 14, was killed by Ronnie Dunbar, a prolific known paedophile. Melissa was the child of Freddie and Mary Mahon, three of whose daughters were taken into care in the United Kingdom before they moved to Ireland. Melissa had made allegations of sexual abuse against both her parents. I am informed that British social services informed the HSE of their concerns about the Mahon family. At the time of her death, Melissa was supposed to be in the care of the HSE. Following Ronnie Dunbar's conviction and life sentence in July last, I called for an independent review into the HSE's dealings with Melissa Mahon and the Mahon family. I do not know whether such review is taking place or if any report ultimately will be published.

On 4 August 2009, Danny Talbot, aged 19 years, died. He and his family were utterly failed by the HSE and our children's services. On 6 October last, only a few weeks ago, when meeting with family members seeking an inquiry, the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, promised to revert to them within three weeks. To date, they have not heard from him.

It is entirely unacceptable that no automatic independent investigation is triggered when a child in care or reported to be at risk dies. How can we ensure that children are, in so far as is possible, protected in the future when there is no accountability or transparent system for learning from the tragic deaths of such children who have been utterly failed by the State? On behalf of Fine Gael, I am again calling on the Minister of State with responsibility for children to publish in full all existing reports into the deaths of children in care, to guarantee that a proper independent and transparent investigation will take place into the circumstances surrounding the death of any child reported as at risk or who dies while in the care of the State or shortly thereafter and that the resulting reports be made public.

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