Keating apologises to abused for failure to protect them

The former minister for industry and commerce, Mr Justin Keating, has apologised to those who were abused in religious institutions during his term of office. He asked that other ministers who served with him do likewise.

He said he would not allow celibates near disadvantaged institutionalised children and called for generous compensation to be paid by the Roman Catholic Church to victims of abuse.

He also called for complete transparency where State funds were being transferred to church-run institutions.

Mr Keating argued that knowledge of such abuse was widespread at the time. Writing in the current issue of the Irish Humanist magazine, he said: "I now come to something particularly painful for me personally. In the period 1973-1977 I was a member of the government , to the actions (or inactions) of which collective responsibility applies. The fact that my Department was Industry and Commerce does not absolve me from the guilt that follows from the fact that these things happened in my time." He suggests that other ministers who feel as he does might like to join with him in apologising to the abused for their failure to protect them.

He was "quite satisfied that the people in the (religious) communities knew (about the abuse)". "What about the priests at large?" he asked. "Can they, in truth, offer the Nazi alibi: `It wasn't me. I was somewhere else, I didn't know'? "They could not have escaped knowing," he said. "We are sure" the hierarchy knew, because of complaints made to them which were ignored.

Similarly, civil servants "must have developed a very shrewd insight about what was happening", but "the State sheltered its complicity by duplicity, and all the organs of church and State betrayed the victims". Among the conclusions he drew from recent revelations was "that celibacy injures your health". For most celibates, "a decision taken in their teens under mental pressure from reprehensible older people, does them awful harm. Either they endure against their will, at terrible psychological cost, or they are driven to such activities as beating and sexually abusing children. I would not allow celibates near disadvantaged institutionalised children, not because they are all bad, but because the risk is too high".

He called for the relevant institutions to be taken out of the hands of religious and for complete transparency where transfer of public funds to the church is concerned. There was reason to suspect "that capitation fees exceed the money spent on each child, and that the church is subsidising other activities with this money". There should also be generous compensation paid to victims by the church, but he sensed "an obvious evasion looming. `Ah yes,' say the bishops, `we did it, but what we did, we did as agents of you, the State, so you pay'."

He referred to large sums of money being accumulated by the sale of church property, where "even when this property was originally obtained by the expenditure of public money or the gifts of the faithful, the church has shown itself extremely grasping".

He felt that, "judging from their efforts so far, consisting mainly of denial, evasion and non-co-operation, we cannot expect self-reform from the church (apart from the almost hilariously offensive offer of helpline counselling from the organisations which perpetrated the offences)".

Without sustained anger and sustained pressure, "these organisations show no sign of being able to reform themselves", he said.

"The corruption seeping into the body politic from these events has spread very widely. In our world, people who have practised all their lives at believing what is impossible (have) become, simultaneously, expert at disbelieving what is possible. In other words, they lose their judgment. Knowing but not knowing is a national art-form. In plain language it is called hypocrisy and double-dealing and it is everywhere," he said.