THE PROTECTION of children should never again come second to the protection of any institution or organisation, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has told the Dáil.

Ms Fitzgerald, who criticised the initial response to the Cloyne report by a Vatican spokesman as unhelpful, said of the Children First protection guidelines that “we must have compliance without exception or exemptions”.

“Never again should someone be allowed to place the protection of the institution or organisation above the protection of children.”

She reiterated her call for the publication by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church of the audit of each diocese and “for acceleration in its conduct of all such audits”.

She was speaking during the Dáil debate on the all-party motion on the Cloyne report criticising the Vatican’s role in child protection. The report found the diocese failed to report nine out of 15 complaints of child sex abuse made against priests.

The motion deplored the Vatican’s intervention, “which contributed to the undermining of child protection frameworks and guidelines of the Irish State and Irish bishops”.

Ms Fitzgerald said the report “contains the evidence of what happens to little children when child protection guidelines are declared by the Vatican to be nothing more than study documents.

“While the study continued, so did the abuse.”

The Minister also quoted some of the adults “those little children become”. She cited a number of abuse survivors, one of whom said: “My mother reared five children. How did she get one so different? I am like a shadow.”

Another said: “What was so awful about all of this all of my life is I felt that I was the one who did something dreadful, that I was the one so isolated in shame until I knew better, you know, and that is exactly what he wanted.”

Ms Fitzgerald said she and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter were “acting with an urgency and absolute determination to bring forward a programme of firm actions to strengthen our nation’s child protection framework”.

The Government “must be assured that all legal and practical measures are being taken to guarantee” child protection.

The Health Service Executive will publish a child protection and welfare practice handbook for frontline professionals, following on from the Children First guidelines published last week, which will be put on a statutory footing.

The Minister stressed the guidelines would go beyond mandatory reporting, “because protecting children involves more than making a once-off report”.

She said she would introduce a “much broader-based and comprehensive approach to child protection”, including a requirement regarding sharing information.

The new legislation “will provide for a strong system of inspection and oversight”.

Ms Fitzgerald said the Department of Justice was close to finalising vetting legislation and the Minister for Justice had published the Criminal Justice (Withholding Information on Crimes against Children and Intellectually Disabled Persons) Bill.

Mr Shatter called for everyone to clearly state that in dealing with child abusers the “era of ‘mental reservation’ is over and the laws of this land will prevail and be applied”.

He said he was determined to ensure “church and State do what is necessary to protect our children from those who sexually prey on them or physically abuse them”.

He was equally determined that those who work with children or recruit others to work with them “behave with awareness and responsibility and in the best interests of the child”.