I call Deputy Ivana Bacik.

Before I begin, my thoughts are with the man who remains seriously injured in hospital, and with his family, following Monday's brutal knife attack in north Belfast. I also condemn the appalling violence perpetrated against Northern Ireland's migrant communities overnight and commend the work of the emergency services in response. We must all condemn those who seek to exploit any awful incident in order to target ethnic minority and immigrant communities. We saw it here during the Dublin riots in November 2023. All of us have a responsibility to unite against racism and violence.

I will raise with the Taoiseach the final report of the south east independent commission of investigation - the report into the depraved systemic sexual abuse of children by the paedophile, Bill Kenneally, which was published yesterday. The details set out in the report are nothing short of horrendous. So many young lives were destroyed by his vile and heinous crimes. I pay tribute to all the survivors. What they endured is the stuff of nightmares.

Bill Kenneally tortured young boys over many years in unfathomable ways. He exploited his position of authority to abuse them. He ensured their silence through blackmail and intimidation. When some of his young victims found the courage to report him, their bravery was met with inertia and cover-up by the Garda and by those who should have been protecting them, whose duty it was to protect them. For far too long they were not protected. The report is unequivocal. There was a clear dereliction of duty by senior gardaí in dealing with Kenneally's disgusting crimes. Had proper procedures been followed, and had the children been taken seriously, more children could have been protected from suffering at the hands of Bill Kenneally.

No institution comes out of the report well - not the Garda, not the health authorities, not sporting bodies, not Fianna Fáil and not the Catholic Church. It now falls to the Taoiseach and the Government to respond. I am still reading the report, as we all are. It is very detailed, but we know it makes a number of important recommendations. It recommends in particular an urgent review of the need to introduce a criminal offence of misconduct in public office. That in particular follows the failure of former Fianna Fáil Deputy, Brendan Kenneally, to contact authorities after he became aware of his cousin's campaign of abuse in 2001.

We understand that the Taoiseach will offer a State apology to Bill Kenneally's victims. That is very welcome, but survivors deserve clarity about when that will happen. After the ordeal they suffered, the minimum these men deserve is the Taoiseach's respect. I regret to say that the decision by the Minister, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, to share this 400-page report with the survivors so close to publication did not show sufficient respect, as they have said. We have seen this before. Survivors of mother and baby homes were forced to learn key findings of that report through the media. We understand that survivors of Kenneally's vile crimes were given only 24 hours to digest the report before its findings were all over the news.

Will the Taoiseach do right by Bill Kenneally's survivors? Will he engage respectfully and directly with them? Will he commence the process of introducing that crucial new offence and will he implement the other recommendations of the report into his crimes?

First of all, I want to say without equivocation that the crimes committed by Bill Kenneally were absolutely horrific over a prolonged period of time and caused immense trauma and suffering to many people and families. I am reading through the report, like Deputy Bacik. The judge, Michael White, has been very clear in terms of the central finding of a failure and a dereliction of duty in relation to the way An Garda Síochána dealt with this, particularly in 1987 when the perpetrator himself, Bill Kenneally, was in the Garda station and almost acknowledged culpability in respect of this, and the failure to do things properly in terms of taking statements and sending them to the DPP at the time. There are wider issues as to why the Garda was not in a position to do that and so forth, but I am not going to go through that here. That, in my view, and also some failings in terms of the health board at the time, demand a State apology. That is my clear reading of the report so far.

There is no equivocation by the commission in terms of that central conclusion in respect of the failure to deal with this properly and comprehensively at the time, even by the standards of the day. The report goes into the contrast, which it describes as profound, in terms of the understanding and the framework and edifice we have in place today for child protection, but even by the standards of the late 1980s the commission says it is absolutely not acceptable.

There is then also the behaviour of others, including the former public representative, former TD, Brendan Kenneally, at the time. The commission is very clear that it fell below the standards that one would expect. It seems to me that the recommendation that has been made pertains to the failure of An Garda Síochána in terms of that central failure to prosecute, and to do what one would consider to be the basic investigative response required to deal with the facts and the position that were known at the time. There were then failures to alert others. There was a failure to alert the Vikings basketball club by people who knew. To be very straight, there was a failure to notify the Fianna Fáil Party locally. That is very clear in the report. It was not notified at that time-----

I thank the Taoiseach. I call Deputy Bacik.

-----by those who knew also.

I call Deputy Bacik to respond.

It is a damning report in that respect. We will follow through on it.

The Taoiseach will be back in.

We hope to arrange time in the House to have a proper consideration of this report.

I thank the Taoiseach for his considered response. Like him, I commend the judge, Michael White, on all his work and for taking on this report and giving us such a comprehensive picture. I agree that we need a debate in this House once we have had time to digest the full findings of the report. Unfortunately, however, there have been so many of these situations where we have seen paedophilia covered up and even facilitated by State agencies, and where we have seen failures to support and protect victims and survivors. I am thinking of the survivors of Eamonn Cooke, the survivors of industrial schools, the brave individuals who came forward about the "Blackrock Boys" and the survivors of Michael Shine. Deputy Nash has been speaking out on behalf of survivors in that appalling situation. I know the scoping inquiry is due to report soon. We have been looking for a public inquiry into the litany of failure there in respect to victims.

The State must clearly do better. I know, as the Taoiseach said, there are better procedures in place now, but we can still do more. On 25 June, in this House we will be putting forward the Labour Party's Bill to ensure that where religious orders have colluded in cover-ups, that they can be pursued in order to facilitate the payment of redress to victims.

The Deputy's time is up. I call on the Taoiseach to respond.

This is another step in ensuring survivors and victims are supported and protected and the justice system responds.

We need to let the report speak for itself. It does not have a finding of a cover-up, a conspiracy or collusion. We have to be true to the report of the commission. However, it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty and the need to reform the law in that respect, which the Minister will now be pursuing with the Law Reform Commission, as recommended by the commission. Yes, we can do better. The State has initiated quite a range of inquiries, as the Deputy iterated, going back to the industrial schools. We have a scoping inquiry under way on the victims of Michael Shine. The Minister for Health is working on that and also on other inquiries at the moment. We must also make sure that State authorities and every official are aware of all the responsibilities people have in respect of any reporting and the necessity to report.

I thank the Taoiseach.

In my view, in the first instance it bears rearticulation that any abuse allegation should be reported to the Garda.