Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I do not support my colleagues who called for balance in the context of the Ryan report. This is not the time for talking about balance but for talking about the Catholic church, an organisation that has totally and utterly failed its citizens. How dare anybody talk about balance. Anyone who reads the five volumes of the report will be traumatised. I do not believe anybody should speak of balance until they have done so. There are 3,600 pages in the document, which everybody should read. What our fellow citizens and members of the Catholic church did to innocent little children is unbelievable. As I said last week, these were poor children, the poorest in our society.

Attention must be drawn to the fact that people who are sexually abused in institutions suffer consequences for the rest of their lives, including post traumatic distress, suicide and alcohol and drug abuse. Also, there is evidence to prove that the children of adults who were abused in institutions equally, when they become adults, suffer from suicidal behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse and post traumatic distress. The Catholic church at this time is a failed organisation. This issue is not about Christianity and Christ but about the organisation and institute of the Catholic Church. Archbishop Martin and Cardinal Brady are doing their best to save the day. We must, for the rest of our lives, be vigilant to ensure this does not happen again.

Chapter 13 of the report states that right up through the 1980s children in St. Joseph's school for the deaf in Cabra, which was not an industrial school, were being sexually abused and that in the 1990s deaf children were being physically abused. This was happening in the 1990s. I can assure members that if they read this document before making their contribution tomorrow they will forget about talking about balance. That is for another day.