SENIOR Church figures, gardaí and politicians who colluded with or ignored evidence of abuse should face criminal prosecution, victims’ groups declared yesterday.Amid growing anger at the scale of the cover-up within the Church hierarchy and deference to the Church from gardaí and health boards, survivors accused those who failed to address the decades of abuse in Dublin of being "as guilty as the perpetrators".
One survivor of clerical abuse in the capital, Andrew Madden, said even former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has questions to answer over his failure to open an inquiry into Mr Madden’s revelations during his time as taoiseach.
Mr Madden, who went public in 1998 with the abuse he suffered as an altar boy, also said those who were auxiliary bishops in Dublin at the time, as well as Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe, could now fall under fresh scrutiny.
"There are questions for these bishops to answer now," he said.
As for Mr Ahern, he said: "You might ask him why he did not share my desire to have this inquiry in 1998."
One in Four director Maeve Lewis, survivor Marie Collins and Mr Madden all called for those responsible for failing to tackle the abuse rampant within the Dublin Archdiocese to face the full rigours of the law, including Archbishop, now Cardinal, Desmond Connell.
Ms Lewis said the report was also "scathing of gardaí and describes their connivance, which is truly shocking".
Ms Collins said that in her own case gardaí were provided with physical evidence of the abuse she suffered, but while the investigating gardaí had been very helpful, the force overall had "simply abdicated their responsibilities and handed it over to the Archbishop".
"They are just as guilty," she said.
Mr Madden said: "Those who turn a blind eye to these offences are as much a part of the problem as those who actually commit them. Looking the other way causes more children to be sexually abused."
The current Government was also criticised for its continued failings to provide adequate support to vulnerable children.
Aspects of Minister for Children Barry Andrews’s 99-point implementation plan, based on recommendations of the Ryan report, were "watered down", Mr Madden said.
That some of the recommendations should only be in place by 2011 was "oddly generous", he said.
Non-compliance with Children First should be a criminal offence instead of a breach of contract, he argued, and the Children First guidelines also need to be put on a statutory basis.
He also said monitoring of convicted sex offenders in Ireland was "almost non-existent" and that more action was needed on the use of "soft information".
Ms Lewis also called on the Church to "stop hiding behind the Statute of Limitations and the automatic rebuttals of claims in the civil courts".
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