Taoiseach makes ‘long overdue’ state apology

“THE darkest corner of the history of the State” is how Taoiseach Brian Cowen described the country’s “deepest shame” – the systemic abuse and neglect of children in residential institutions run by religious orders.

Expressions of horror, shame, regret and sorrow were made in an emotional day in the Dáil where two days have been set aside to discuss the findings of the Ryan Report.

Survivors of abuse were present in the Dáil visitors’ gallery to watch the speeches by TDs from all parties.

The Taoiseach said: “On behalf of the State and of all citizens of the State, the Government wishes to make a sincere and long overdue apology to the victims of childhood abuse, for our collective failure to intervene, to detect their pain, to come to their rescue.”

Mr Cowen said no one could read the Ryan report without feeling revulsion and that the implementation of its recommendations would be a Government priority – including a memorial for the victims.

He repeated his call on religious orders to make further substantial contributions to the redress scheme: “It seems clear that how they meet that responsibility will deeply influence how the Irish people judge finally the extent to which the congregations live up to the values of their founders.”

Minister for Children Barry Andrews said a plan will be presented to the Government next month for the implementation of the recommendations in the Ryan report. “There will be no peace for the survivors unless we live up to the ambitions set out in the Ryan Report,” he said.

In a strongly-worded address Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said: “The Report of the Ryan Commission shames us. It shames us as a state and as a society.

“We stand complicit in the criminalising of little children as a consequence of their poverty. But that’s just the beginning. This State was responsible for the destruction of life itself. It was responsible for the destruction of that precious, formative gift: childhood.”

Labour Party education spokesman Ruairi Quinn said: “There is a continuing culture of deferment and obedience to the Catholic Church and its religious orders in the Department of Education and Science that has continually frustrated getting answers to simple questions.

“Either officials in the department are members of secret societies such as the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei and have taken it upon themselves to protect the interests of these clerical orders at this point in time in this year of 2009 or, alternatively, the minister is politically incompetent,” Mr Quinn said.