David Norris (Independent)

It seems there is only one issue before the House today, the tragic impact of the Ferns report. I hope that the decent faithful, as they call them in Ireland, will be able to separate the issues of their own faith from the scandalous behaviour of some of the officers of their church. I also hope that the decent priests, of whom there are many, do not get caught in the backlash. The people who are responsible are the ones responsible but I would say, echoing what many of my colleagues have said, that this goes right to the top, and I am talking about Rome. I remember when Cardinal Groer was suspended for the myriad allegations that he molested seminarians, the late Pope John Paul II wrote him a letter of sympathy and never uttered a word of comfort to the victims. The present Pope has used the Vatican to secrete people who are under this kind of accusation in Mexico. With this, we must look at the very top. The aspect I find shocking is that so many senior responsible, mature people put the reputation of the church above the suffering of children. That is dreadful.

I am glad that many people have made it clear, which is not being made clear in some aspects of the church, that there is a very definite distinction between paedophilia and homosexuality. It is important that distinction is made, is sustained and is not blurred, particularly because of the witch-hunts that have been instituted in America and the language of hatred produced against gay people by the Vatican.

We now must look back at what we, as legislators, have done. I do not entirely agree with Senator Maurice Hayes because it seems to me that we must legislate. We are reproached by a situation in which health boards remained impotent and had to stand aside because they had no power to intervene. They could be made aware of a situation. We need not reflect for the next ten years or establish a commission to know that was wrong and must be addressed.