Ivana Bacik (Independent)

On a day when we are all awaiting the budget with trepidation, we see a carbon tax is likely to be introduced. We will have to see the format it will take. It would be an important component of any package aimed at reducing our carbon emissions. In that context, I note the Leader has scheduled a debate on Thursday on climate change. Can the Leader tell the House when the Government Bill on climate change will be introduced? When will it sign up to its commitment to ensure there will be a binding obligation on it and future Governments to ensure yearly reductions in carbon emissions. As the House will know, No. 18 on the Order Paper is my Climate Protection Bill which would have imposed such binding obligations. It is all very well having statements, but in a week when the Copenhagen talks are ongoing, we should know from the Leader when the Government Bill will be debated in this House.

I ask for a debate on a specific aspect of the Murphy report. I know the debate on it is continuing today and I contributed to it last week, but I have been re-reading subsections of the report. I have a particular concern about its criminal law implications. We need a specific debate in the new year on that issue. There has been a lot of talk about whether persons who knowingly concealed the incidence of crimes of sexual abuse could themselves be prosecuted for a crime. Such people could include the bishops who were described as being guilty of wilful inaction or inexcusable negligence in the report.

A view has been expressed that because misprision of felony was apparently abolished in 1997 it would be impossible to prosecute. I have seen legal advice which would suggest otherwise. I have also re-read the Murphy report's view on this which leaves open the possibility that persons could be prosecuted in the future for concealment of offences, many of which were not classified as felonies, but rather as misdemeanours, at the time. I ask for an urgent debate on how existing criminal law, despite the 1997 Act, could be used to ensure persons who knowingly concealed the incidence of child sexual abuse within the church could be prosecuted. There are ways of doing that. Mr. Pearse Mehigan's article in The Irish Times on Monday suggested there are ways to prosecute the bishops concerned.