Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 29 and 30 together.

The position of Dean of the Diplomatic Corps is a ceremonial position of precedence. The dean serves as spokesperson for the Diplomatic Corps on formal occasions and may be asked by the Diplomatic Corps to act as its representative in matters which concern the corps as a whole.

The longstanding practice whereby the Papal Nuncio assumes the position of Dean of the Diplomatic Corps is in full accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 and is followed by a majority of EU member states, including Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Italy, as well as by Switzerland and many other countries around the world.

The current Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, called to Iveagh House at my request on Tuesday of last week to discuss the report of the Dublin archdiocese commission of investigation, and the issue of the co-operation received by the commission from the Holy See and successive papal nuncios as it carried out its investigations. At this meeting, I conveyed to the Papal Nuncio the deep anger and outrage of the Irish public at the appalling abuse of children detailed in the commission's report. I emphasised to Archbishop Leanza the importance of the Vatican providing a substantive response to inquiries from the commission. I explained to the nuncio the need for the Holy See to provide the fullest possible co-operation with any ongoing or further State investigations into clerical child abuse, including in the context of the upcoming inquiry by the commission into the diocese of Cloyne. The nuncio undertook to convey my strong view that the Vatican should co-operate with any request from the Dublin and Cloyne commission or any future commission to co-operate with any request for information.

Archbishop Leanza also met the Secretary General of my Department on Wednesday, 2 December at the nuncio's own request. At both meetings, Archbishop Leanza made clear on his own behalf and on behalf of the Holy See his profound shock and dismay at the content of the commission's report. He stressed that there had been no intention on the part of the Holy See to withhold co-operation from the commission. He recalled that the Holy See had indicated that the commission should pursue its inquiries through the appropriate diplomatic channels.

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