Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

I, too, commend Senator Tully for tabling the amendment. The wording it contains is important. The Senator talked about measures being commensurate with compensation from the religious. Driving through any village or town in Ireland, the largest building you will find will be the church. I agree with what Senator Boyhan said in that I have known many good churchmen. I have known churchmen who got out of bed at night to help families in distress. They were not all bad eggs, but the problem is that the institutions and organisations benefited greatly from the money. In my area, Salthill in Galway, land was sold by the Church for sites on which to build massive houses, at enormous cost. A secondary school sold off part of its land and apartments were built on it. Where did that money go and who does it really belong to? As Senator Tully has pointed out, it belongs to those who lived in the institutions under the brutal systems that they operated, whereby people were farmed out as if they were cattle. I would like to see some serious action on the amendment. Again, I congratulate Senator Tully.