‘Taoiseach didn’t see fit at the time to establish national inquiry’

A VICTIM of clerical abuse has criticised Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for being “populist” in his rush to recommend a nationwide investigation into child sex abuse by priests.

Andrew Madden, who was sexually abused by Dublin priest Fr Ivan Payne, claimed Mr Ahern had dismissed his calls seven years ago for a similar national inquiry into the Catholic church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.

He has also complained about a four-year delay by the Justice Minister Michael McDowell in establishing a promised inquiry into the behaviour of church authorities in the archdiocese of Dublin.

The former altar boy, the first person in Ireland to go public about his experience of clerical sex abuse, said his appeal for a countrywide inquiry to the Taoiseach in 1998 had fallen on deaf ears. “The Taoiseach didn’t see fit at the time to establish a national inquiry. However, it seems he’s done a U-turn and is in favour of such an inquiry now in anticipation of public outrage following the Ferns report,” Mr Madden said yesterday. He wrote to the Taoiseach in 1998 to call for the establishment of a public inquiry into the issue because of growing public concern about how the church dealt with allegations against priests.

In a reply dated June 9, 1998 Mr Ahern’s private secretary, writing on the Taoiseach’s behalf, said such an inquiry “would not be appropriate.” The letter claimed the Government could only establish tribunals of inquiry where there were “definite matters of urgent public importance.” It also observes: “There would also be an intrinsic, and probably legally challengeable (sic), unfairness in a process which focused on the Catholic Church and abuse by clergy.” Furthermore, it added: “The scale of such enquiries would be very great indeed; so great in fact that it is difficult to see how they could ever be effective.”

Commenting on the letter, Mr Madden remarked: “The Taoiseach clearly took the decision (in 1998) to put his political welfare above that of children by turning a blind eye to the problem.”

He said the Government had only been prompted into setting up inquiries into the dioceses of Ferns and Dublin after BBC’s Suing the Pope and RTÉ’s Cardinal Secrets. Mr Madden also blamed Mr McDowell for “a snail’s rate of progress” in the Dublin investigation which still has no chairperson, buildings or staff. However, he predicted the findings of such an inquiry could ultimately be “at least as bad as Ferns”.

In 1993, the former Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell lent Fr Payne around €30,000 from diocesan funds to compensate Mr Madden, even though he later denied knowledge of any such payments.

Fr Payne, a former curate in the Dublin suburbs of Glasnevin and Sutton, was convicted in 1998 of 13 sample charges of indecently assaulting young boys including some who were patients at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin where he served as chaplain. He was released from prison in 2002 after serving four and a half years of a six-year sentence.

Mr Madden’s story of abuse, Altar Boy, has sold around 50,000 copies.