Ruari Quinn’s speech to Dáil Eireann following the publication of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Report)
Mr. Quinn is now Minister with responsibility for Education as well as other Portfolios.
Shattering
“The Ryan Commission report has shone a powerful light into probably the darkest corner of the history of the State,” the Taoiseach said. “It contains a shattering litany of abuse of children in care in this country over many decades. In doing so, it presents a searing indictment of the people who perpetrated that abuse, of the religious congregations who ran the institutions in which it took place, and of the organs of the State which failed in their duty to care for the children.”
Launching a scathing attack on the Department of Education, Labour’s Ruairi Quinn said he had lodged a series of simple questions since February seeking details about the nature and ownership of schools and the location and name of schools in the ownership of a religious order or a Roman Catholic bishop.
However, the department had refused to provide such information.
“Either officials in the department are members of secret societies, such as the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei, and have taken it upon themselves to protect the interests of these clerical orders at this point in time. . . or, alternatively, the minister is politically incompetent and incapable of managing the department,” Mr Quinn told the Dail.
Ireland is the only country in Europe where the primary school system is controlled by “private organisations”, Mr Quinn said.
In order to begin the transfer of schools out of “private” ownership, the department needed to provide an inventory of religious assets.
However, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has refused to provide details to the Opposition, the Labour Party said.
Mr Quinn added: “I do not believe Mr O’Keeffe, is a bad man. I do not believe he is a Catholic right-wing secret obscurantist, but many of the people working for him on a permanent salary — he will be gone in a couple of years — most certainly are, or else they are incompetent, lazy and destructive.”
The Labour spokesman concluded there was a continuing culture of “deferment and obedience” to the Catholic Church in the department.
