Kenny: SF must tell if rapists were sent to South

Sinn Féin has been put under intense pressure by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to reveal anything it knows about sex offenders moved across the border to the Republic by the IRA.

Mr Kenny insisted Sinn Féin had serious questions to answer after he met rape victim Maíria Cahill who says she was subjected to a “kangaroo court” by senior IRA figures who made her confront her attacker.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has strongly denied that he, or his party, have been involved in any cover-up of Ms Cahill’s case, or any other sexual assaults by IRA members.

During a tense exchange of views in the Dáil, Mr Kenny accepted Mr Adams’ invitation to meet the senior republicans accused by Ms Cahill, but after some confusion Sinn Féin insisted that these people were not the ones who allegedly took part in the kangaroo court but other senior republicans who had also been named by Ms Cahill.

The Government is making time for the Dáil to debate the controversy in the first week of November.

Mr Kenny expressed alarm at the IRA moving sex offenders to the South, and called on Sinn Féin to reveal what the party knows about the situation.

“They are still here. People know who they are, people know where they are and people know of their activities. It is time that people spoke up and answered these questions,” said the Taoiseach.

“The deputy [Mr Adams] might confirm from his information from associates who were members of the IRA whether he is aware of any people who were moved down to this jurisdiction, to Donegal or to Louth, who were involved in sexual abuse of women in Northern Ireland and who are still in this jurisdiction.”

Mr Adams, who has urged anyone with information on abusers to go to the gardaí or PSNI, insisted that Mr Kenny and Fianna Fáil were using Ms Cahill’s claims to attack a “political enemy”.

“Sinn Féin has not engaged in a cover-up of child abuse as some of our political enemies, including the Fianna Fáil leader and the Taoiseach, have alleged. This accusation is a slur on thousands of decent Irish republicans and Sinn Féin members,” Mr Adams said.

The Sinn Féin leader said those accused of conducting a “kangaroo court” by the rape victim were “decent people”.

“These are not nameless, anonymous people. These are decent people. Will the Taoiseach meet them and listen to their version of the story, and then make a judgment on these matters?” asked Mr Adams.

Taking this reference to include Ms Cahill’s attacker, Mr Kenny said: “I find it absolutely unbelievable that Deputy Adams would come into this House of Parliament and say a man who raped and sexually abused a woman is a decent person.”

Mr Adams protested strenuously that his comments did not include the rapist, and that Mr Kenny knew that.

Describing Ms Cahill as a “courageous force to be reckoned with” whose allegations would have “serious consequences”, Mr Kenny insisted she had been “kicked about” by senior IRA figures.

A solicitor representing four individuals who were charged over the IRA inquiry allegations said they had all been found not guilty in court but that their acquittals have been either ignored or devalued.