Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Curran, to the Seanad to listen to the statements on this report. I echo many of the points made by Senator Buttimer. We are singing from the same hymn sheet on this issue.

I do not know how to discuss this report. I have scanned it. I could not read it because the litany of abuse and cruelty in every chapter upset me greatly, particularly as this kind of abuse went on for a period from 1975 to 2004. I cannot explain my feelings of disgust. It is difficult to put into words the disgust felt by people. People who do not have the report but read extracts in the daily newspapers have discussed it at the dinner table and in their local pub. That discussion is taking place across the entire country. This abuse was being perpetrated under our eyes and we did not see it. How did that cover-up take place? Four archbishops covered up the abuse. They were arrogant because they had the cloth, and the cloth spoke louder than any words. The message the church sent out in past years was that it had arrived. The allegations were against 46 priests, and the State facilitated cover-up. Successive Governments did not tackle it. There should be no doubt about that. The gardaí listened to complaints but did not follow up on them. The vast majority of the church turned a blind eye.

We are at a crossroads in society. Society must change. The political institution has been criticised. The church has been greatly criticised. We are saying that society must change in the future. We are a Republic and nobody is above the law, neither priests nor judges. Everybody should be equal before the law.

I grew up in a Catholic family household. We had priests coming into our household who played cards frequently. They were lovely people. Two of my aunts are nuns. They are beautiful people. There are many good priests and nuns doing great social work and I have to speak for them as well. I feel sorry that they find themselves, as do politicians, in a position where one bad apple appears to create all badness. That is the position we are in currently in terms of protecting the institution of the church. I do not like using the word "institution". That word must change.

Senator Buttimer said that we must change and we may bring in a new constitution. We must go down that road because the relationship between the church and State has broken down. They worked together for a long time and now we must consider where we go from here in terms of the church's role in the future.

The priests got lazy. They were lazy even in their sermons. They did not give good sermons. That is the reason the churchgoer moved away from the church. There are people who are no longer "churchy", so to speak. They are interested in their religion but they are not interested in the church. I do not know how we can rethink that concept in the future but we are at a crossroads and we must bring in the guidelines and legislation. I congratulate the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, on putting that in motion, setting up the guidelines and ensuring the agencies involved with young people, be it the Health Service Executive, our schools, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and many of the other agencies, interact to ensure abuse will not happen again.

It is horrific that we are here discussing this report. I am not good at talking on this issue. I am not able for this kind of debate. It is too hurtful when I think of the good work church people do and then they are destroyed, so to speak, by these people who had power over young people. I never want to have to talk on this topic again. I was a teacher. I hope that as teachers, priests, nuns and politicians we will do everything in our power to ensure that young people will never again be subjected to clerical sexual abuse.

I have not much more to say on this but I hope procedures will be put in place to deal with it quickly. I hope the audit the HSE put in motion last summer will bring about a change and that there will be no more cover-up. It should all come out now. I congratulate Archbishop Martin for saying this is the end of the road for the church of the past. I only hope that the failure to deal with a problem will never happen again and legislation and statutory guidelines will be put in place to ensure that the gardaí and teachers will know what to do in the future. I hope also that parents will feel their children are being protected by the agents of the State in dealing with problems.

I wish the Minister well in taking on board this legislation and these statutory guidelines to ensure we move to a different era and that the church, as an institution, will change to help people, and not only young people. It has a role to play in society, not as priests in a lordly way, but as ordinary people with a vocation to help those in distress. That is my wish for the future of the institution of the church. I want to protect the good priests and the good nuns and tell them that they should continue doing their good work. They should tell the others to get away and that they do not need them in their church. I ask the good priests to stay with us and fight their case to be part of the church of the future.