Martin Conway (Fine Gael)

As a practising Catholic I stand here today in utter amazement that the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has not tendered his resignation for the sake of all Catholics in this country, including me, who believe that the Catholic Church has a future. It is regrettable that Cardinal Brady, who no longer retains the moral authority of practising Catholics in Ireland, has not moved on to allow someone new, who is untainted in any shape or form by what happened in the past, to take over. If the church is to survive and continue to play its important role in education and other areas, we need a complete and fundamental clean out at the top in terms of the senior management structures of the Catholic Church.