Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I know a priest who was editor of a clerical magazine and who was sacked by the hierarchy because, in 1989, he wanted the magazine to introduce a debate on clerical child abuse. For his sins he was cast to the furthest part of west Mayo where he is still a curate. I recall being in the office of the then Minister for Education and the current Leader of the House, Senator O'Rourke, and battling against the pervasive influence of the Knights of St. Columbanus in attempting to secure the introduction of the Stay Safe programme in Irish primary schools. To give credit to the Leader, without her support at that time as Minister, the Stay Safe programme, which gives children the words and encouragement to talk about what happens to them, would not have been introduced.

Following each of the horrible cases in Kilkenny and Mayo, I and my Independent colleagues proposed motions in the House urging the House and the Government to support the concept of mandatory reporting. Our proposals were refused and such reporting has not been introduced. In the 1960s and 1970s the current Pope, as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued an edict of omerta to the Catholic Church authorities in every diocese in Europe advising them how to deal with cases of clerical abuse. They were bound to silence. Such matters would be dealt with through Canon Law. If they broke the silence on the information they received, and it was not received in the confessional, they would be automatically excommunicated. Even victims who broke that silence were threatened with excommunication. What influence or impact did that have in every diocese in this country? This must be examined. It is outrageous that it must be done.

I am grateful Senator Brian Hayes considered this report in detail. I could not do it. I found it nauseating and sickening. I could not cope with one story, in particular. A young child, in the course of preparing for confirmation, was abused by a priest in the confession box. She told her parents and her parents acted immediately by going to the gardaí and the bishop. The matter was investigated. The parents pleaded with the bishop not to allow that priest anywhere near the confirmation ceremony but on the day, the priest swaggered into the church with the bishop by his side. That was appalling.

Two years later that child unfortunately died suddenly. The parents made one request, that the child abuser not officiate at the funeral ceremony. However, he insisted on doing it. Those parents, believing in their faith, had to sit in their church and watch the man who abused their child say prayers over her body before she was consigned to the grave. If it had been my child, I believe I would now be serving time.

Part of me believes that the sooner we discuss this, the better but, on the other hand, perhaps we should wait a little because it is too raw at this stage. We need to know how we should proceed with issues such as Stay Safe programmes, mandatory reporting, the impact of the Catholic Church and the impact of groups such as the Knights of St. Columbanus. That group, apparently, had some impact on why the case I mentioned and eight similar ones that occurred on the altar of that church were not investigated. It is appalling.