Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome that debate. I was going to raise it later under the Order of Business. I am also very mindful that there are victims and families affected by abuse watching us. Some of them have been in touch with my office. Sexual abuse and abuse of any kind is wrong. The abuse of a child is a particularly heinous crime. The consequences for victims and their families are devastating. We know this having seen the human cost of abuse right across society.

I have set out the circumstances in the North when there was no democratic civic policing service. I have acknowledged that the IRA sought to deal with some cases of abuse when asked to do so by families and victims. While IRA volunteers were acting, in my opinion, in good faith, the IRA was ill-equipped to deal with such matters. IRA actions against sex offenders failed victims. That is a matter of profound regret for me and other republicans. I am acutely conscious that there may be victims who were let down or failed by the IRA's inability to resolve these cases. As Uachtarán Shinn Féin, I want to apologise to those victims. Those who wish to should come forward now and report their complaints to the appropriate authorities - An Garda Síochána, the PSNI or the social services, or the HSE in the South - and they will have Sinn Féin's full support in doing so.

Secrecy has surrounded abuse in Ireland. It was taboo to discuss it and some victims were very fearful to disclose. The only way to face this problem is to support and empower victims in order that they will speak out. To cover up child abuse is to deny the basic humanity of the victim and to shield the perpetrator. It is an unthinkable act of cruelty. Sinn Féin has not engaged in a cover-up of child abuse as some of our political enemies, including the Fianna Fáil leader and the Taoiseach, have alleged.

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