Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The pain and suffering of people who have been victims of abuse by church institutions is just too horrific to describe. In that context the catalogue of abuse, and cover-up by the church authorities of it, and failure to act is an absolute outrage. While this motion constitutes a good start in being so critical of the church authorities, Members must go considerably further. First, as Deputy Halligan stated, the papal nuncio undoubtedly should be expelled until the church issues a clear and unequivocal statement that it will give precedence to civil law, that is, the law of the State. on these matters over canon law or its own concerns to defend its reputation or any other self-interest it may have. In addition, the church and the State should be forced into some form of truth and reconciliation forum in which the victims of abuse by the church and other institutions within the State should be given the opportunity to confront the authorities of the institutions that abused them, to have their own voices heard and to articulate their demands on what they need in respect of redress.

While the church authorities have, rightly, been criticised, the Minister also must consider the issue of the failure of the Garda to report complaints of abuse to the health boards, as well as the fact that in some cases, gardaí were assessing whether priests about whom complaints had been made were an ongoing risk to children. The Garda has no qualification to assess whether alleged abusers are an ongoing risk to children as that is a matter for the health authorities. The role of the Garda is to use different criteria to assess whether legal prosecutions can be taken. In other words, when one talks of mandatory reporting, the key question is to what authority is one reporting and for what purpose. Reporting should not be to the Garda alone, as I heard the Minister mention on radio today, although it certainly should be reported to. Reporting also must be to the health authorities, which must consider the interests of the child. Consideration must be given to whether a legal prosecution can be taken and to the best interests of the child, as well as to what measures must be put in place to secure those best interests.

As has been agreed and as the wording of the motion suggests, many of these problems would not have occurred had the Children First guidelines been in place, had they been implemented fully by all agencies and bodies and had they been respected by church institutions and everyone else. Therefore, I greatly welcome the Government's commitment to put in place and give legislative force to the Children First guidelines. However, it is clear these guidelines cannot be implemented fully and properly unless the resources are provided to so do. This goes far beyond the commitment to an additional 250 social workers, as many other types of supports, resources and staffing issues also must be addressed. This comes at a time at which the public sector recruitment embargo is slaughtering staff numbers in many of the areas which it would be necessary to resource fully and this point must be considered. If children are to come first, the resources must be put in place to ensure they do.

See this speech in context