A CALL has been made for the Government to engage in direct talks with British prime minister Gordon Brown and the Northern Ireland Executive to address allegations of child sexual abuse in the North.

“There is no reason to believe that clerical sexual abuse stopped at the Border,” said Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter.

He also accused the Taoiseach of “defending the indefensible” when he “excused the conduct” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) and the papal nuncio. Mr Shatter said “it is a scandal the congregation and the Vatican relied on diplomatic protocol to avoid providing information to the Murphy commission”.

He also called for the papal nuncio and the CDF to appear before the Oireachtas health committee and he said no issue of protocol prevented the papal nuncio responding to the Murphy commission by letter “even as a matter of courtesy”.

During a resumed debate on the Murphy report, Mr Shatter said it should be remembered that “the Catholic Church authorities exercise their mandate throughout the whole island of Ireland. No redress board has been established to pay compensation to victims of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland, nor has a commission been established to investigate allegations of child abuse by priests there.

“I am calling on the Government to engage directly in discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland secretary of state and with Gordon Brown . . . to seek the creation of structures to address allegations of clerical and institutional abuse in Northern Ireland.”

Criticising Mr Cowen, he said that “by his words he was not, as Taoiseach of this Republic, acting in the interests of our people but displaying in this House the undue deference to those in church authority”.

Mr Shatter also criticised Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern when, as minister for foreign affairs, he “failed to follow up the letter received by his department” from the CDF, which said the Murphy commission did not go through the appropriate diplomatic channels.

He said the minister should have followed up the letter to “ensure that the Murphy commission received the information and documentation it was seeking. The only conclusion that can be reached is that this failure to act was another example of undue deference being shown to Rome.”

Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews said he would be presenting heads of a Bill to Government which would include a proposal that the Garda vetting unit, based in Thurles, be put on a statutory basis with responsibility for the management of all information on child abuse.

He said legal advice had been sought about the powers of the Health Service Executive (HSE) to investigate and deal with instances of child abuse perpetrated outside the family; it was found the executive had the requisite powers.