David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)

I support the call for this House to have a debate on the Cloyne report and its implications. I agree with Senator Norris that such a debate should be conducted in a calm and forensic way. He is absolutely correct in this regard. Many issues are at play because this report brings one up to 2009, which constitutes a shocking indictment of the Catholic Church. Given what has gone before and all the previous reports from which lessons should have been learned, it appears that those lessons were not learned by all within the Catholic Church. I welcome the Tánaiste's proposed meeting with the papal nuncio, which is extremely important and from which it is to be hoped there will be a positive outcome.

I also wish to place this issue in an all-Ireland context because on issues as important as the protection of children, Members must ensure there is all-Ireland joined-up thinking and harmonisation. I note no register for sex offenders exists across the island of Ireland and there are variances between policies on child protection between North and South. This is an area in which, through this House or another forum, there may be scope for all-Ireland co-ordination to ensure that children are protected across the island of Ireland because victims of clerical abuse were living both in this State and in the North.

I revert briefly to an issue that was raised yesterday and support the call by Senator Barrett for Mr. Chopra to be invited to appear before this House. However, there has been some discussion on the ratings agencies and while I have no grá for such agencies and agree with much of what was said about them, the underlying factors that brought them to downgrade our debt to junk status are real and one cannot dismiss those factors. In response to questions from Deputy Pearse Doherty in the Dáil yesterday, the Minister for Finance-----