Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 282: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will summon a person (details supplied) to his Department as a mark of disapproval at the failure to respond to the commission of inquiry into child abuse. [45385/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 282 and 285 together.

The Papal Nuncio called to Iveagh House at my request this morning to discuss the report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation and the cooperation of the Nuncio and the Holy See with the Commission.

Neither I, nor my predecessor, received any communication prior to the publication of the Commission's report regarding a refusal or failure of the Nuncio or the Vatican to cooperate with the Murphy Commission.

The only correspondence my Department received in relation to the Commission prior to the publication of its report related to a diplomatic note dated 1 March 2007 addressed to our Embassy to the Holy See from the Vatican Secretariat of State. This note referred to an inquiry addressed to a department of the Roman Curia by Commission, which the Secretariat of State understood to be a body established under the authority of the Government of Ireland through the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The note asked that the Embassy remind the appropriate authorities that such requests should be addressed to the Holy See through proper diplomatic channels, in accordance with international laws and customs.

This diplomatic note was passed by my Department to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which in turn forwarded it to the Commission.

Later in March 2007, the Vatican authorities approached our Ambassador to the Holy See, reminding the Embassy of the note of 1 March and enquiring whether it would be possible for the Embassy to indicate to the Commission, through the appropriate authority in Dublin, that the Holy See had responded through diplomatic channels to their communication so as to avoid any impression on the part of the Commission's part that its correspondence had been ignored. Following confirmation from Dublin that a copy of the Vatican's diplomatic note had been passed to the Commission, the Embassy sent a diplomatic note to the Secretariat of State on 26 April 2007 confirming this fact.

In the meantime, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform wrote to the Chairperson of the Commission informing her that the Vatican had sought confirmation that the Commission had received its diplomatic note.