Ryan report on abuse

The SDLP brought a motion about the Ryan report into clerical abuse for debate in the assembly on 2 November 2009.

Published in May 2009, the Ryan report caused widespread controversy over its findings that sexual and psychological abuse was endemic in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages in Ireland for most of the 20th Century.

The motion urged the assembly to agree that the abuse detailed in the report should be subject to criminal law.

It also called on the executive to commission an assessment of the extent of the abuse in Northern Ireland, fund counselling services and liaise with authorities in the Republic of Ireland on matters related to the report.

The SDLP's Carmel Hanna said the report had been a watershed in recent Irish history and was a grave indictment of the powerful and privileged in church and state.

However, while supporting the motion's wish to bring those who committed such crimes to justice, the DUP's Michelle McIlveen said she did not agree that the executive should produce a report along the lines of Ryan.

The circumstances were different in Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland, and the Ryan Report had afforded anonymity to perpetrators, she said.

Sinn Féin's Gerry Adams said the litany of abuse was the "stuff of nightmares".