Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Untruth. Why did Deputy Adams tell an untruth about the knowledge of his brother’s abuse of a very young, vulnerable woman who came to him looking for help? He turned the tables on her. He tried to point the finger of abuse and neglect at her mother when he made a complaint to social services about the latter’s neglect of her child. Did it slip his mind to make the complaint about sexual abuse by his own brother? Given all the events the Deputy has been remembering over recent weeks, does he remember ever sitting with any other victims and their abusers together in a room?

What knowledge does Deputy Adams have of a senior Northern Ireland politician's brother who had allegations of sexual abuse made against him in the 1990s? Allegedly, he was taken to a flat in Andersonstown where he was facilitated in a move to Dublin. What corporate memory does the Deputy have of that incident?

I have knowledge of eight other men - alleged abusers - who were facilitated by Sinn Féin to move out of Northern Ireland and relocated to the Republic but, to be honest, I am too afraid to name them here today. Therefore, I have exercised my duty by making an appointment with my local sergeant for Friday morning to hand over that information to An Garda Síochána and report these men. I fundamentally believe it is now time for Sinn Féin to exercise its duty.

Will Deputy Adams tell this House about an internal investigation led by him and other senior Sinn Féin politicians in which he identified in excess of 100 victims of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of Sinn Féin or IRA members? What did it uncover? Did he report any of the 100 or so cases to the Garda Síochána? Will he tell us why a senior press director of Sinn Féin was briefed to prepare a damage limitation exercise and instructed to prepare a media strategy in the event of knowledge of that investigation ever being leaked?

I genuinely have no hope of any truth or co-operation from Deputy Gerry Adams because, God knows, I know I would not believe the Lord’s Prayer from his mouth at the moment. In recent weeks, I have looked towards those whom I would have believed are future Sinn Féin leaders for real leadership on this issue arising from the allegations Maíria Cahill has made. I refer in particular to the new generation of Sinn Féin members who are not tainted by the heinous acts or the horrific murders during the Troubles. There were so many such acts that I will not even mention them.

Let me address Deputy McDonald, who apparently likes a bit of Maya Angelou, whose most famous quotation, in my opinion, is: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Today I feel disgusted by Deputy Mary Lou McDonald’s response to Maíria Cahill and all the other victims of Sinn Féin and IRA sexual abusers. I am disappointed beyond belief that she would so cheaply sell her integrity for political positioning, that her naked political ambition would cause her to fail the children of our nation, fail families and fail victims, all in the name of a cheap power grab. She is no longer credible, in my humble opinion, when she rekindles her fake support for victims of symphysiotomy, survivors of the Magdalen laundries and victims of sexual abuse at the hands of institutions of this State because she has failed to hold her own institution to account and scrutinise Sinn Féin or IRA activities and actions. For all her rhetoric about women's rights, she did not know how to respond appropriately to Maíria Cahill’s allegations because to respond or react like a woman, a human being, would have meant telling the truth. It actually would have meant criticising that chap beside her. Maybe I am being too harsh because, perhaps like the rest, she is probably afraid of the real Belfast leadership. I ask her sincerely to step outside the groupthink that obviously characterises Sinn Féin and stand up for victims with sincerity, not in the mealy-mouthed way she has done in recent weeks by saying she believes Maíria Cahill while undermining her at the same time.

Sinn Féin’s response to all the recent and still-emerging victims’ stories is to call for an all-Ireland response involving the creation of an all-island body to deal with the issue of support for those who were victims of sexual abuse during the conflict. Sinn Féin’s version of an all-Ireland approach was to put children on this island at risk. It blatantly put the protection of its own movement ahead of the protection of our nation’s children and, crucially, it is continuing to do so.

Let me finish by saying to Sinn Féin and its supporters that facing up to this issue is not about undermining the peace process but actually about strengthening it. Making Sinn Féin amenable to scrutiny will actually help it turn into a normal organisation and might actually garner it support rather than damage it further. The greatest benchmark against which to measure the success of the peace process is how we protect our children. Thus far, in my humble opinion, Sinn Féin has failed abysmally.

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