Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I support the comments of Senator Colm Burke in requesting the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs to address the House on how our Parliament is effectively or adequately using the Lisbon treaty provisions to put a stay on European legislation being implemented here until it is adequately scrutinised. I was shocked by what the President of the European Parliament said yesterday that other countries are certainly using this provision in the treaty for the six to eight-week period, but as Senator Colm Burke said today, Ireland has not yet used it. We need to realise the impact EU directives and legislation are having on Irish people. We must use that provision to put a stay on it until we are certain it suits us.

I support Senator Mac Conghail in calling for a debate on the report on the handling of clerical sex abuse allegations in the Cloyne diocese due to be published this afternoon, which I understand contains findings against 19 priests. I would like the Leader to ask the Ministers for Children and Youth Affairs and Justice and Equality to give us an update on the implementation of the recommendations of the Murphy and Ryan reports. We debated those reports during the last Seanad, but we do not know how many of the recommendations have been implemented. There is little point in getting reports with recommendations if we do not know that behaviour and practice is changing. I proposed to the Leader of the previous Seanad, Mr. Cassidy, that this House should play a significant role in the implementation of those reports and that we would have oversight in this House. This was abuse against our children down through history by some clerics. This is a shameful history we have and this House should play a leading role in ensuring that practice and behaviour are changing for the better and for the protection of our children.

I support the comments made earlier and seek an apology for the disparaging remarks made against my colleague in the other House.