Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A Garda inquiry concerns criminal justice. The Deputy asked whether all dioceses should be referred to the commission, if I am clear on his question. The Deputy must remember the Dublin commission looked at only a sample of cases, so it was not an effort to try to bring perpetrators to book. Rather, it was an exercise to try to find out what went wrong, who was responsible and what we can learn for the future.

There is a limit in regard to including all of the dioceses in the commission of inquiry because we have learned so much through both the Ryan and Murphy reports, and we will learn more from the Cloyne report. We have to remember there are also 140 congregations. It has taken us a year to examine Cloyne thus far, and it may take us a little longer. If we go through all of the dioceses and all of the congregations, for which some people are now calling, I doubt we will add much to our body of knowledge in regard to where we went wrong in the past. We have learned much. However, the Government, of course, reserves its position in regard to the HSE audits and what they will uncover about these dioceses.

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