State responsible for abuse by all Churches

The Taoiseach’s and the Minister for Justice’s lack of integrity, denying justice to the survivors of abuse in Bethany House, makes me despair that Ireland will ever change.

It is not good enough for Enda Kenny and Alan Shatter to argue that times were different then.

Children were abused at Bethany. So, why has it been agreed that the State has liability for facilitating the abuse inflicted on children by the Catholic Church, but not for abuse of children by the Church of Ireland?

It’s a relief the Dáil is on holiday for the next two months, and the Bethany victims can be spared the nauseating hypocrisy of Mr Kenny repeating his catch-in-the-throat speech trick while holding back his crocodile tears as, yet again, he proves he can ‘talk the talk, but he can’t walk the walk’.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London