AN amendment to the Statute of Limitations to remove the time limit in which civil actions for child abuse can be taken was urged by Mr Willie O'Dea (FF).

In an adjournment debate, he said sexual, physical and psychological abuse of a significant number of children was among the biggest crises facing the State. Generations of parents, neighbours, law officers and other responsible people were complicit with abusers because they did not act on their suspicions.

The Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, said the three year period within which a claim for a civil injury must be made did not begin to run for children until they were 18. He was reviewing the situation and if a further change to cater for child abuse cases was warranted he would consider making it.

Ms Helen Keogh (PD) asked whether the Minister for Justice had initiated independent inquiries into the failures of the Garda and the health board regarding allegations of child sexual abuse by two Co Wexford priests - Father Jim Grennan, in 1986/87 at Monageer, near Enniscorthy, and Father Jim Doyle, convicted in 1990 for abusing a young boy who had since tried to commit suicide.

The Minister of State for Justice, Mr Austin Currie, said the health board carried out an inquiry and issued a statement last November. The matters were also being investigated by the Garda. It did not appear to him that an independent inquiry was warranted.