Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which deals with the winding up of the Residential Institutions Redress Board. Section 8 of the Act allowed the board to take late applications for redress and implied it was wholly appropriate that this be the case. There was, no doubt, hesitancy on the part of some victims to come forward to discuss the unspeakable and evil abuse they suffered. In many cases, victims did not have the courage to speak out until they had seen others do so and achieve some success in their search for justice. The extension of the original deadline for applications in exceptional circumstances allowed those people the time and space they needed to tell their stories.

It is now six years, however, since the original extended deadline and the board is being wound down. I understand that, as of May 2011, the board received 15,135 applications, of which 14,592 were finalised, leading to 13,669 awards. It should be noted that many people achieved recognition from the redress board but refused their awards.

It is very welcome that the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, has allowed the board to continue to accept late applications for redress in exceptional circumstances until 17 September 2011. It is planned to advertise this in two Irish and two UK daily newspapers six weeks in advance of the deadline. I ask the Minister to expand the advertising programme in recognition of the fact that not everybody affected might see these advertisements. I ask the Minister to examine the feasibility of radio and television advertising in addition to the newspaper advertisements.

I support the call of the Minister for the religious institutions to contribute to the overall bill on a 50:50 basis. Certain religious orders have made offers of property to the State and the Government is considering them. Will the Minister provide an update on progress in this regard?

Yesterday saw the publication of the Cloyne report and the release of some very distressing evidence of the abuse that has taken place in this country. We should remember the publication of reports such as this, in addition to the Ryan and Murphy reports, is a terrible reminder of the victims concerned. They should know their participation in the compilation of such reports represents a great service to the State by revealing the truth about what happened. It is beyond belief that, to this day, individuals in the Catholic Church do not understand one should not abuse children. One should not abuse children physically, emotionally or sexually; it is that simple. It is beyond belief that senior members of the church orchestrated the withholding of information from the authorities and compounded matters by making victims substantiate and prove their stories.

The church authorities should now bow their heads in shame having been dragged through the various commissions of inquiry. The Ferns, Murphy and Ryan and reports, and now the Cloyne report, point to disgraceful litanies of child abuse carried out by the religious. The cover-up means a crime against children was committed on the double.

I support the call yesterday by the Tánaiste for a comment from the Vatican in response to the Cloyne report. I understand Archbishop Leanza said he would immediately bring a copy of the Cloyne report to the attention of the Holy See.

Let me finish on a more hopeful note. There has been a very positive development since the publication of the various reports, namely, legislation to require statutory compliance for the first time with the Children First guidelines, as recommended in the Ryan report. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Francis Fitzgerald, received Cabinet approval for this yesterday. The legislation will require all organisations and individuals working with children to share information with the statutory authorities where such information relates to child welfare or protection concerns. The message is simple: child abuse is morally wrong and will not be tolerated.

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