Dublin abuse inquiry 'will go ahead'

A Government commitment to hold an inquiry into alleged child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese still stands, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil.

This emerged as all sides of the House condemned the clerical child abuse and its cover-up revealed yesterday in the report on the Ferns diocese.

Mr Ahern said that the commitment given by the Minister for Justice on behalf of the Government to hold an inquiry in the Dublin archdiocese similar to the Ferns investigation would go ahead.

He also said legislative action was required and "we will act on all these matters very speedily". The Government would be writing to the church authorities to ensure that it was implementing its own guidelines.

"Some of the recommendations require legislation while others do not. We agree with them in principle and will immediately proceed with their implementation."

He also said that one of the recommendations in the Ferns report that had to be accepted was the creation of a new criminal offence covering the issue of failure to protect children from injury or sexual abuse.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the "detail in the report is absolutely scandalous and brings shame on a civilised society". It was "very necessary" that the Dáil swiftly enact measures to ensure the future safety of young boys and girls and children in general.

The Ferns report was "truly a shocking wake-up call to the church and State in that so much more needs to be done in the interest of protecting the young people of this country".

The Opposition had heard promises about legislation to establish a register of people considered unsafe to work with children but a Fine Gael Bill on this had not got a response.

The Taoiseach said that a number of Bills had been enacted relating to protection of minors. He said that "it is obviously important that we learn from past mistakes, including those of the church, to ensure the abuses that occurred never occur again".

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said that "most Irish people will be shocked that the institutional church was used as a cover for child abusers and shocked by the facility with which it ignored the professional advice that was made available. This House should hang its head in shame in that we turned a blind eye to this appalling period in our history."

Mr Rabbitte asked the Taoiseach how "can we be sure it is not happening now, given the stark picture that is revealed of the shortcomings in our child protection system".

Mr Ahern said that "I cannot say that none of these activities is happening anywhere in Ireland today," but the Government would be writing to the church authorities to ensure they were implementing guidelines in every diocese.

When the Taoiseach said that the Government would honour the commitment to hold a similar inquiry in the Dublin archdiocese, Mr Rabbitte said that the commitment dated back to 2002.

"Some of the allegations in the Dublin diocese are if possible more horrific and ghoulish than the allegations made in Ferns and it is important that the Minister establish an inquiry into them without delay."

Mr Ahern pointed out that legislation was passed recently to allow for examination of the Dublin cases. "We awaited this report as a template.

"Now that we have received it we can deal with that issue and ask the church authorities in every diocese to implement the 1996 standards and these recommendations."

He was mindful that the report stated that clerical abuse of children was probably 3 per cent of the total abuse.