Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I have listened with interest to the various contributions. I echo the request by Senator Mac Conghail yesterday for a debate on the Cloyne report at the earliest opportunity. I will reserve my remarks for that debate. Others speakers have said it is important to approach that debate as people who have briefed ourselves fully, first, by reading the report. As all of us come from different parts of the country, I suggest we take the opportunity, in the public interest, to get in touch with people involved in local church leadership to find out exactly what is happening now. I speak as someone who had a position as an employee of the Catholic Church from shortly after the framework document came into force. There was a public expectation and a public acceptance that the church, throughout its various dioceses and religious orders, was now implementing good practice. What is really tubaisteach, to borrow the Irish word, and what makes people really feel betrayed, is the fact that church leaders, who had been party to the public proclamation of the introduction of good practice, then slid back from it without anybody knowing. Today is a day of great release - I do not like the word, "closure" and I do not believe in using it - for the most important people, those who were victimised. We should be careful to do justice, by researching properly, to the many church leaders, clergy and thousands of ordinary lay people around the country who are doing Trojan work implementing best practice in child protection. I know many of these people and I know the countless hours people are spending on a voluntary basis trying to get this issue right.