President Mary McAleese gives her reaction to the findings of the inquiry into child abuse.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) was established to investigate the extent and effects of the abuse of children in Irish institutions. The findings of the investigation were published as the Ryan Report.
President Mary McAleese said that there should be criminal prosecutions as a result of the child abuse that was found to have occurred in Catholic run institutions. She says the report demonstrated a catalogue of criminal offences and there must be justice for the victims.
President McAleese, who is visiting the United States, spoke to RTÉ Washington Correspondent Charlie Bird.
What the Ryan Report sets out is a catalogue of criminal offences.
President McAleese said that the focus needs to be on the people who were already very vulnerable and were consigned to institutions by the state where they were then subjected to further abuse.
We can never give them back their childhood. We cannot give them back their adolescence. But there has to be, in the days and hours that they still have breath in their body and so do we, there has to be time for us to make collective amends.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 28 May 2009. The reporter is Charlie Bird.
