Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)

I declare my solidarity with all those affected and their families, who still bear the scars and carry the legacy of this abuse. So many abused children went on to develop addictions and health issues as a result of the heinous trauma inflicted upon them. The scale of abuse that was revealed in the scoping inquiry that led to this commission is simply astounding. A total of 2,395 allegations of abuse have been made against 888 alleged abusers but, again, this was in a very small range of schools. Shockingly and sickeningly, almost one quarter were in schools for children with additional needs. We must bear in mind that the inquiry was limited.

The revelations of child sexual abuse in schools run by the Spiritan religious order, particularly Blackrock College, where adult men bravely spoke out - I salute them - about their ruined childhoods at the hands of abusers, indicate massive under-reporting of male abuse generally. We need a secular, objective sex education programme to educate children about abuse - something the religious orders that run these schools have resisted at every hand's turn, along with the far right, on the grounds of protecting children.

Physical abuse has not been included and no redress has been indicated. For far too long, whenever it is put under pressure from a particular scandal or revelation, the Irish establishment has commissioned piecemeal reports or commissions, as seen by the official commission into the mother and baby homes. They have been designed to reveal as little as possible, not just to protect the church, but also to shield the political establishment and indemnify the State financially. We have a redress scheme operating for the mother and baby homes that excludes many. We need a real reckoning with the gross abuse that took place arising from the inordinate power given to the Catholic Church by the Irish State in the century since Independence. Rather than establishing public systems of education, health and care, the State handed over control of these to the church, which resisted any feeble efforts made to establish public education and health.

This is not an historical issue as 90% of primary schools are still religious-run and just 5% are multidenominational.

On redress, it is time to seize the church's assets. We all know the money is there. The widespread abuse was inevitable when secretive organisations like this existed. The Christian Brothers have paid €54 million officially, which is a drop in the ocean. We all know they are hiding money. The figure for the Spiritans is €157 million, for the Brothers of Charity, it is €33.9 million, for the Jesuits, it is €43 million and for St. John of God, it is €54 million. It is time for the Criminal Assets Bureau to get that, to take their land and money so they can atone for what they did.

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