When we raised the matter of the Ferns report yesterday I had only been handed it a brief time before the Dáil met. Having read the report last night and as a father of young children, the words we used in this House yesterday barely do justice to the horror suffered by so many people, the victims of the abuse outlined.

There is clearly a national consensus that we must deal with this type of suffering and institutional failure and ensure it never happens again. I believe that is accepted across the board. However, we must be particularly careful to guard against this report and its consequences being forgotten about when the next big headline comes along.

One of my abiding impressions from this report is that many of the victims were not believed when they were children but were only believed when they were adults. It is evident throughout the report that a climate existed in this country where it was not safe for children to disclose abuse and where adults would be empowered to respond. We would be wrong and failing in our duties today for today's children and tomorrow's children if we did not admit or acknowledge that abuse can happen anywhere and not only in the institutions examined in this report. Therefore, there is a heavy responsibility upon this Legislature to respond promptly and appropriately to this very clear report.

I would like to ask the Taoiseach three questions about it. The Government indicated an intention to set up an inquiry into the allegations of abuse in the Dublin diocese. Is there a case for extending that inquiry and audit across the country? Second, I suggest that a comprehensive audit be carried out of all State agencies which deal with child abuse issues to ensure this country adopts best international practice in order to ensure children and young people are afforded the same respect, value and rights as adults. Third, the legislative changes recommended by the report, particularly relating to the creating of the offence of reckless endangerment and expanding of the remit of the Health Service Executive need to be clarified and should be brought forward with the greatest urgency. The Taoiseach might respond to those three matters.

I appreciate that Members of the House only received the report when we were dealing with leaders' questions yesterday. I had a chance to read a very large part of it last night, particularly the accounts of the witnesses; I had obviously read the recommendations prior to the Cabinet meeting. As I said yesterday, the report is a catalogue of serial abuse and gross dereliction of duty in the diocese of Ferns. It is shocking to everyone's sense of how our children should be protected. As I said yesterday, our thoughts go to the victims and their families and to the brave people who came forward. As Mr. Justice Murphy acknowledged, the fact that they were prepared to bring out the full horror of their situations serves us to try to make sure, as Deputy Kenny said, that these things do not happen again.

Over the past probably 15 years as a result of the uncovering of many allegations, many of which have been proven, as many of the allegations in this report have been subsequently fully proven — and that is the position in other parts of the country and not only in the Dublin diocese — we have put on the Statute Book a number of laws, six or seven of which I mentioned yesterday, including the Protection for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act, the Sex Offenders Act and many other pieces of legislation.

Mr. Justice Murphy has given us a job to do. That is the important task we have today, namely, the recommendations of the report, some of them requiring legislative measures, with which we must deal. We must deal with those as quickly as we possibly can. The Government agreed on that yesterday. Mr. Justice Murphy specified the areas with which we should deal. In his view, and the Government agrees with him, the High Court should be empowered to grant orders against persons, including priests, who are a risk to children in order to restrain such persons from occupying any employment that exposes them to children. That is an answer to one of Deputy Kenny's points. We are not only talking about priests but about everybody in a position of responsibility.

It was acknowledged in the report that many organisations that deal with children in one way or another where there is not direct supervision have protocols to follow. It would serve us well for everyone concerned to examine those protocols. They should not wait for legislation to be enacted to do that. Anybody dealing with such situations should examine them, and I am aware many organisations do. Dr. Roderick Murphy's report on sexual abuse in swimming some years ago issued recommendations which many sporting organisations have passed. The second issue is that the Oireachtas should consider creating a new criminal offence around the issue of failure to protect children from injury or sexual abuse. That is set out in the report. That is an area we will deal with.

Deputy Kenny asked about the issue of the national audit. To deal just with Dublin would not hold up and I do not intend to do that now. We said all along we would await this report and see how best to proceed to a national audit or some means of investigation and how that should be done. We have not worked out how best to do that, but we will. The Attorney General has been examining this issue. Whatever we do, whatever way we do it and whatever terms or whatever remit or whatever form, it has to be wider. Two issues in this are important. Mr. Justice Murphy has been impressed with and recommends that the 1996 framework document as implemented in Ferns should be dealt with on a national basis and, equally, that the recommendations in his report should be dealt with. Whatever we do around the country, and I do not wish to give a suggestion off the top of my head, we have to work that out and we will do that very quickly. I think that answers the Deputy's question.

I thank the Taoiseach for his reply. In reply to a question yesterday from Deputy Rabbitte the Taoiseach, quite rightly, responded that he, as Taoiseach, could not answer as to whether similar incidents have occurred or are occurring in any other part of the country. Everybody here has had contact with priests of the Catholic Church who set out on their ecclesiastical business with the highest standards and who have always carried out their duties in an entirely responsible manner but there have been allegations that Ferns may not be unique. I accept the Taoiseach should proceed to deal with the Dublin diocese as quickly as possible. The Murphy report demonstrates that at quite reasonable cost a private inquiry like this can lay out a litany of truth about matters that took place many years ago. From that perspective, I think for the Catholic Church itself that a national audit would be in everybody's interest because where this abuse has existed it has to be cleared out once and for all and be dealt with. This report clearly outlines its own findings. Whatever decision is made with the Government in respect of the diocese of Dublin where there are some grave allegations also, perhaps that system should apply nationally and that, for once and for all, we can set in place not just protocols but the very best practice to ensure children now and in the future can and will grow up in an environment of respect and trust where their lives will not be completely and utterly destroyed. These are difficult choices and to legislate for each individual personality is difficult. I repeat that this side of the House will accommodate whatever the Government wishes to do in terms of implementing or legislating for that best practice.

I assure the Deputy that we all have to learn from the mistakes of the past and especially but not only the church. The reality is that none of these issues was ever reported within the church authorities and even in the Garda authorities or in the health boards. Until 1990 it was a very different situation. This report, like other reports in other areas, has highlighted this issue.

In regard to the Dublin diocese, we have already gone down the road a considerable distance in terms of preparation for the work there but had held back pending this report, which was the right thing to do. We can say categorically and we rightly expect that the 1996 guidelines will continue to be implemented fully in every diocese. The first thing that has to be done, and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said this yesterday at the press conference, is to write to the dioceses to ensure that is happening. One of the issues that arose from Mr. Justice Murphy's report is that not only the guidelines but the inter-agency action that was taking place between the Garda, health officials and others had proved to be hugely successful in other areas. It is a question of whether that should apply everywhere and it is in the interests of the church. We all realise there are many people involved in the church who would abhor what is outlined in this report as much as any of us and for their own sense of being able to carry forward their own mission they would want to do this. The 1996 guidelines are the first issue.

The second issue is what is contained in this report and, obviously, it requires legislation. There will have to be new ways for dealing with people who deal with children. I have already mentioned the legislative change. The important issue is to ensure as best we can this never happens again in society. As I said yesterday I am conscious that clerical abuse of children — I do not know how people worked out the figure and I am not too comfortable working out the figure — accounts for 3% of abuse, which means 97% rests somewhere else. Many of these reports are equally relevant to other places but we are dealing with the Ferns report. We have to build on our knowledge to ensure it never happens again. When looking at the Dublin diocese we have to look at the nature and type of inquiry. There have been some suggestions by my colleagues already on how this could be done but until we work out a means of doing it I do not want to say something off the top of my head. We will deal with it. The audit will have to be on a national basis. It will mean looking at those who, perhaps, have been prosecuted. The inquiry looked at how these issues were dealt with, and not just that they happened. The upsetting aspect of the report is that normally when a person is in breach of something, and certainly on an issue as serious as this, as happened properly under Bishop Walsh in Ferns, they are removed and are out of the equation, but that was not what happened. We have to ensure that is not the position that pertains anywhere else.