Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The experience of sexual violence or abuse is a crime like no other. It brings with it the physical trauma, fear and shock associated with any violent assault and much more. It is an insidious crime, a secret crime, unspoken and unacknowledged and, in many cases, denied and disbelieved. It is, perhaps uniquely, a crime which leaves many victims feeling responsible, guilty even, for their own suffering. The profound sense of stigma, silence and isolation associated with the crime of abuse has scarred the lives of countless victims across Ireland, across generations and across class and creed. It takes courage to disclose, to make a complaint or to speak out. I acknowledge every person who has taken those decisions and those who have stepped into the public light to tell their story. Maíria Cahill took that brave decision. I also acknowledge how essential anonymity is for many victims. It affords them the privacy and protection in which to pursue justice, to cope, to heal and to come to terms with their ordeal. The alleged rapist at the centre of this controversy and debate is alleged to have committed offences against two other people in addition to Maíria. Their legal representative has made clear that the sensationalist commentary of recent weeks has caused them distress. We should be mindful of their rights and their feelings.

While much of the public debate and commentary on sexual violence and child abuse has centred on people's experiences in various institutions, it is true to say that the place where women and children are most vulnerable to abuse is in their home and among their family circle. Abuse is most often carried out by perpetrators who are close to and trusted by the victim. Statistics published today by the Rape Crisis Network reflect that 91% of perpetrators are known to their victims. Maíria Cahill's case follows a tragic, disturbing pattern for teenage victims. The crime was rape, the alleged perpetrator was a family member, known and trusted, and the assaults took place in the perpetrator's home. She first disclosed to a family member, someone within her circle of trust. That person was the late Siobhan O'Hanlon, her cousin.

Many families did not know and still do not know how to respond to the earthquake in their lives that is a disclosure of abuse. It is, perhaps, the most traumatic and potentially the most divisive revelation that any family can experience. I know of cases where people have gone to their graves still not having been believed by their family members. That is why it is so essential that the State and its institutions have the confidence and trust of victims and their families. That confidence and trust is the first requirement for people to come forward and make complaints. It is the most basic prerequisite of justice. That trust and confidence did not exist in the Northern State. We have recognised this. People did not and could not trust the RUC. The political chaos of conflict left many victims in ongoing, agonising silence, afraid of their abuser, the war, armed groups, the police, Special Branch and the British Army, afraid for their families and their lives.

Many victims of sexual violence and rape in the course of the conflict never told anyone or reported anywhere. Others reported to the social services or the RUC. Some of those cases were mishandled and others were cynically exploited in the game of one-upmanship in the course of a vicious conflict. Other victims came forward to other groups, including the IRA. The IRA should never have been involved in dealing with accusations of sexual violence or abuse but it was. Rough justice or summary justice for alleged perpetrators meant no justice for victims. That is the reality. The IRA was not and could never be a substitute for the due process that is at the core of upholding victims' rights and punishing those found guilty of such an heinous crime.

Maíria Cahill claims that she was subjected to a coercive investigation by the IRA. This version of events is vigorously contested by the women and men who stand accused of acting as interrogators. For the record, two of those so accused are women. Earlier, the Taoiseach conjured up the image of the disappeared - this was repeated by Deputy Smith - in his words of condemnation of those who he asserts carried out this kangaroo court. He went on, for reasons best known to himself, to belittle Briege Wright in particular and to sneer at her supportive work with abused women in west Belfast. Is the Taoiseach aware that Briege is the sister of one of those disappeared? Was he being gratuitously cruel in making those remarks? I suppose he does not care anymore because in this case it seems anything goes.

Over recent weeks my words of condemnation for those in the Roman Catholic Church who covered up sexual abuse have been echoed and re-echoed. I wish to repeat those words this evening. Anyone associated with the abuse of a child or the cover-up of abuse must face the full rigours of the law. That is the case irrespective of who the perpetrator may be.

There are no exceptions to this rule. Nobody is exempt, nobody within any group or any organisation, and let me say explicitly that includes republicans and former members of the IRA.

One in four experiences abuse. It is not that far from any of us or from our families. It is undoubtedly the case - a statistical certainty - that abusers are found in all walks of life, and the IRA was no exception. Today, some Members read accounts into the record of this House of very harrowing stories of victims of abuse by republicans. Can I say to those victims that they were not abused in our name? Can I assure those victims, all of whom I understand have made complaints to the statutory authorities, that we support them fully and want them to find the justice to which they are absolutely entitled?

The question has been posed about whether we can get to the bottom of these matters. I believe the answer to that question is "yes". The call for abuse victims and others, including former IRA volunteers, to come forward is genuine and I hope that this call is heard and understood. I hope the Government will take up the proposals, as set out by Martin McGuinness, to establish a mechanism to support victims and find perpetrators. I hope the statements today will amplify and underscore that call because for abuse to be identified and dealt with, the silence must be broken.

Allegations have been made against Sinn Féin that we are party to a cover-up or conspiring to shield child abusers. This is not true and the mere repetition of this slander will never take from the fact that it is not true. We have, like every other political party, I assume, guidelines for dealing with disclosures of abuse and allegations of abuse, whether within our party or within the wider community. I can tell the House that in my own case, I have ongoing contact with Wellmount and Mountjoy social services on matters of child welfare and the same dynamic is true of all other Sinn Féin offices and elected representatives throughout the country. Rarely a week goes by that I do not have contact with victims of abuse in the course of my work. Many are victims and survivors of institutional abuse while others have suffered in their own homes. They and they alone will judge my commitment to victims and to justice and not opportunistic political or media hacks.

Recent weeks have seen the slur of cover-up of child sexual abuse casually made, casually repeated and reduced to a matter of common abuse. I am the mother of two young children and, like any mother, I would walk the hot coals of hell to protect my children. I attach the same value to every other child, to his or her safety and to his or her welfare. The accusation made by some in this House and amplified by some media outlets that any of us is ambivalent to the safety of children or would be party to a cover-up or would withhold information is untrue. That these slurs are made to score political advantage make them truly beneath contempt.

Deputy Buttimer distanced his party from the issue of abuse, but let me say to him that abuse was carried out in institutions supported, inspected and financed by the State. Abuse was denied by the State in those institutions and redress and justice has been afforded only most grudgingly by the State. Government after Government pursued a strategy of denial, of damage limitation and of half-hearted recognition and redress for victims. This is the record of those who today accuse me and my Sinn Féin colleagues. It is the work of utter hypocrites who have chased victims through the courts of this land and beyond to protect the State, who have offered only miserly redress and who have studiously avoided conceding State liability for the vast catalogue of suffering and grief that happened on their watch. That is the truth.

Some victims of that abuse, those whom the State failed, have muddled by, some have coped but many have not. One will find some of them among the rough sleepers in this city. Some have spent a lifetime in and out of prison. They are the inconvenient victims, the ones to be denied and obstructed by those who oversaw their abuse. There are no statements and no banner headlines for them. So much for the commitment to victims.

These matters can and must be resolved. If one message goes out from this Chamber this evening, I hope it is to every victim and every person who has any information or any evidence, hard or soft, on matters relating to the abuse of a child not to delay and to come forward now.

See this speech in context