Dempsey has 'lost all credibility' over inquiry

The Government has "lost all credibility" in dealing with the child-abuse scandal and the Department of Education's role in the inquiry is now "untenable", Opposition parties claimed today.

Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens were all sharply critical of the Department of Education after the interim report of the former chairwoman of the Commission into Child Abuse, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, said it had failed to live up to its responsibility in helping her work.

The three parties called for responsibility for the Commission to be stripped from the Department of Education and transferred to the "less implicated"  Department of the Taoiseach.

They demanded additional resources for the inquiry so it could complete its work and called for the implementation of the recommendations of new chairman Mr Justice Sean Ryan to speed up the work of the Commission.

Fine Gael's Ms Olwyn Enright said the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, had now "lost all credibility" in relation to the abuse inquiry.

"Clearly, neither he nor his predecessor resourced the Commission, nor enabled their own Department to respond to the Commission properly," she said. "With the Department of Education in charge of this Commission how can anyone be confident  that  Mr  Justice  Ryan will not run into exactly the same unhelpful, obstructive and combative approach?"

The Green Party education spokesman, Mr Paul Gogarty, said the continuing involvement of the Department in the inquiry "would seriously compromise the Child Abuse Commission's ability to gain all the facts necessary to find out the truth of what happened to survivors and victims of abuse".

Ms Jan O'Sullivan of the Labour Party accused the Department of Education of "adding to the trauma of victims of abuse" by hindering the work of the Commission.

She said there was a "clear conflict of interest" in the Department's role, in that it was both resourcing the Commission and being investigated by it.

A spokesman for Mr Dempsey told  ireland.comthe minister would be reading the 434-page report in detail before making any comment.