Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

It is possible we need in this Chamber a debate on the issue of education because many changes are taking place and there are issues we should discuss. However, it is neither fair nor tenable to base the request for such a debate on the issue of child sex abuse. In this regard, we must be fair to everybody. It is not right to indict the entire Catholic Church because of the actions of a small minority of clerics who have been responsible for engaging in child sex abuse. It is not right to suggest either that the church should not be involved in education. The logic of that argument is that the State, because of its responsibility for the non-cleric teachers in the education system who have been found guilty of engaging in child sex abuse, should also be excluded. Other members of society, too, should be excluded. We should remember the role the church has played during through the years in the most difficult of times in providing an education system which was provided for persons who did not have the means to pay for an education. I do not accept either that it is correct to casually drop the name of Cardinal Seán Brady into a debate in this context because the day this Chamber sets itself up as judge and jury in such cases is the day we will open the floodgates that could be disastrous for society as a whole.