THE Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Connell, has criticised the recent description of Ireland by the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, as "a post Catholic pluralist republic".

Giving the graduation address at the Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dr Connell expressed his gratitude to Bishop Eamonn Walsh and the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace for their interventions this week in the debate about the bail referendum.

"Without such contributions there would be too little public debate on an important issue about which people have the right to be fully informed," he said.

"My principal concern, however, goes deeper than reform of the law," he went on. "I do not believe that we can succeed in reversing present trends towards lawlessness and crime unless we tackle the weakening of moral convictions which lies at the source of our current malaise.

"This is largely the responsibility of the church. But the work of the church is rendered more difficult by sustained attack on its moral teaching in many areas of public discourse.

He then referred to comments made by Mr Quinn in the US last August. "In setting out to deal with crime by reforming the law, the Government might also consider whether it helps the cause it wants to promote when a Minister is reported to have described Ireland as a post Catholic pluralist republic in a way that seems to endorse a secular hostility to any Catholic influence on our national outlook.

The conferring ceremony was unusual in that among the 67 graduates were the first Church of Ireland students to graduate from the college, which trains religion teachers.

The director of Fine Gael's Yes to Bail campaign, Mr Charles Flanagan TD, expressed surprise at Dr Connell's comments on bail. Mr Flanagan said it was an unsustainable argument to suggest that Irish society should wait until all the social ills that fed crime were solved before bringing in tougher laws on bail. He added "This Government's objective is to be tough on crime while also being tough on the causes."