'Many more' abuse cases in Ferns

Wexford Fine Gael deputy Dr Liam Twomey said he believed that the number of clerical abuse cases has been underestimated in the Ferns report and elsewhere.

Dr Twomey said he was shocked by the physical descriptions of some of the abuse when put down in black and white.

"The Ferns report has focused on clerical sexual abuse in one diocese and has found 100 cases. I believe there are many more that have not been reported for a number of reasons, even within the diocese of Ferns," he added.

Labour health spokeswoman Liz McManus claimed the issues arising from the Ferns report would not be dealt with in a coherent fashion if they continued to be divided between three Government departments, none of which wanted responsibility for managing what it perceived to be unmanageable.

Finian McGrath (Independent, Dublin North Central) said they needed to face the reality that most child abusers were aware before the age of 18 years that they had a sexual interest in children. "That is why many such people have an interest in the caring professions relating to children," he added.

Mr McGrath instanced the case of the abuse of a personal friend by a religious principal teacher in a Dublin primary school. The abuser had taught for three years after the allegation was made and was removed from the school only when a charge was brought against him. He was subsequently convicted.

John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South East) said the report engendered both revulsion and deep anger in the reader.

"As we get over our justifiable outrage, we must ask serious questions because the scale of this abuse could not and cannot have taken place in a vacuum. People knew, people suspected and many people, I am afraid to say, turned a blind eye."

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (SF, Cavan-Monaghan) said that for every staff member working with children there were at least 20 volunteers. Therefore Garda vetting must be made available to the voluntary sector urgently, he said, adding that the basic child protection awareness module delivered to trainee gardaí was grossly inadequate.

"The report exposes the extent to which the power of the church in Ireland was used to destroy the rights and lives of children."

Wexford Labour deputy Brendan Howlin said that for many young people, the Ireland of the 1970s and 80s was an unknown land. A recent RTÉ programme looking at the progressing of social issues during this period reminded those who had lived through it of the bitterness of some of the clashes.

"I remember Fr Sean Fortune's campaign in the 1983 amendment, his doll with flowing red ribbons on the altar. That era is over. We must make sure that it truly is."