Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 October 2002

There is nothing additional to say about the revelations of child sexual abuse that has not been said by my colleagues, except to reiterate what Senator O'Toole said about the stay safe programme. I was a member of the board of management of a boys' school when that programme was introduced and the difference between parents and the clerical church was immediately made very clear. A meeting was held on the matter attended by 300 to 400 parents and, contrary to what we were led to believe beforehand, their universal response to the stay safe programme was that it was too mild. They felt their children should have been told about threats in more specific and explicit terms. As parents appreciate these things, we must assert the primacy of the State and, as people who remain practising members of the church, assert the primacy of those who are its mainstay because excuses of lack of knowledge are beginning to wear very thin.

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