Clearly there were serious system and institutional failures in childcare in this country in the past and children suffered horribly as a result. As a person working with and in and around that system, I regret deeply, as does my whole congregation, that such terrible abuse of children took place.

It is to be welcomed that voice is now being given to some of the people who were so horrifyingly abused, but we should remember too all those people whose stories have not yet been or never will be revealed.

For evil to flourish, it is enough that the good do nothing, the saying goes. Some of us have more responsibility than others, and we all know in our hearts how much of that responsibility is our own. Of course there is no comparison between the responsibility of the perpetrators of abuse and the responsibility of the rest of us, but we were all part of a society that was culpable of at least ignorance and lack of awareness of terrible things going on in our midst.

I do not wish to shirk whatever my own share of the responsibility, but there are things I need to clarify about my position with regard to the abuse that went on in St Joseph's in Kilkenny. I have never hidden and I never would hide an injustice if I knew of it.

In the first place, I had no role or function whatsoever in St Joseph's institution. I lived in a convent building, which was in the same grounds as St Joseph's, and I had two roles in Kilkenny at that time. One was as director of Kilkenny Social Services (based in the same grounds as St Joseph's but operated completely independently of it). The second was as co-director of a pioneering course in residential childcare, which was run from a facility in another part of the city and had no connection with St Joseph's or, indeed, with any other childcare home in the country.

I did not appear on the programme States of Fear because of legal advice regarding the sub judice rule relating to civil actions pending against the Sisters of Charity, the South Eastern Health Board and various Government departments. Furthermore, I felt I wouldn't have had control over the editing of my interview or how it would fit in with whatever slant the programme would eventually take. The programme gave the impression that I was aware of sexual abuse in the 1970s in St Joseph's, which was not the case.

I did not know anything about sexual abuse in St Joseph's institution, and when a childcare worker from there came to discuss with me the matter of one man involved in physical abuse, I responded in a way that I thought at the time was appropriate. He definitely did not tell me about sexual abuse: he did not know of it and he did not resign because of it.

I know now the person against whom that complaint was made was also sexually abusing the children, but at the time I did not know this, nor did I even suspect it. I was a young nun and the term "sexual abuse" had not, as far as I know, even been coined - it was certainly never discussed even among childcare professionals.

To imply, as States of Fear did, that I, other people in Kilkenny, people in the social services and people in St Joseph's knew or suspected at the time that sexual abuse was taking place is unfair and wrong. We simply couldn't have known unless we were explicitly told about it and I do not know anybody who was told.

Certainly, when I look now at the wording of my statement to the Garda in 1995, it could be open to the interpretation that I knew or suspected child sexual abuse at the time. Any confusion arising from a misinterpretation of what I was saying in my statement is attributable to my belief that I was expressing an opinion with the benefit of knowledge gained in the 1990s.

In relation to childcare, my work since 1970 has been attempting to change the childcare system. The course in residential childcare, which I helped to establish and which I co-directed, was an attempt to help childcare workers, lay and religious, become more skilled and competent at their work. For the first time in Ireland lay people were attracted to childcare, attended the course and took up residential childcare as a career.

I have also continued to campaign vigorously since 1970 to have the recommendations of the Kennedy Report published by the Government.

What worries me now, here in 1999, is that there are still terrible things happening to children and we are even now still committing that same error of omission - we are continuing to keep ourselves in ignorance of the dreadful suffering of today's children. It is perhaps of a slightly different kind, but it is still suffering and in some cases it is even worse suffering than what we have seen before, and it is our collective fault for doing nothing about it.

Even when some of us do speak out, it isn't a popular thing to do and the attention given to it from any source is short-lived. Once again the good are silent and we will all be held accountable again in another 20 years for the horrors we have countenanced today - and that includes the media as well as the childcare system.

Children today are sleeping on our streets because there is not adequate provision for them in terms of residential care and adequate community and family supports. Children in need of care are left for very long periods in abusive situations at home because there are not adequate facilities for assessing their needs. It is estimated that between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of child abuse happens in children's own homes, not in childcare institutions.

Children are placed and left in children's hospitals because of lack of care facilities. Judges today are forced to send children to mental hospitals or secure units because of the absence of appropriate provision for them.

It's all horribly familiar, and what are we all doing about it? What answers will we give in 20 years when a journalist "uncovers" this situation and possibly more atrocities that we can't see clearly now?

The Kennedy Report on child care, published in 1970, was our first official recognition of the rot in the childcare system, and on foot of that report several of the worst institutions were closed down. This was a time of hope in Irish childcare, as the old reformatories and industrial schools were replaced by what are now known as special schools and group homes and the system of regional health boards came into being.

However, many of the central recommendations of that ground breaking report relating to legislation, structures and systems were not implemented until well into the 1980s and 1990s. For example, updating of legislation did not occur until the 1992 Childcare Act was fully implemented in 1998, and the legislation for juvenile justice remains outstanding.

The Kennedy Report was very aware of the physical punishment which existed in institutions, yet guidelines for the reporting of physical abuse did not come into being until well into 1987.

While many changes and improvements in our services for disadvantaged children have taken place, the pace of change has been painfully slow, and the reason for that is clearly a reluctance on the part of government to prioritise these children and to provide the legislation, the structural change and funding that is necessary.

States of Fear has drawn our attention to children in care who were abused and ill-treated, and I welcome the Government commission as a response, and as the beginning of a process of redressing the injustices against children in need.

A number of issues have been identified and highlighted which we now know enable abuse to take place. These include our adult incapacity to listen to children's stories, to trust them, to believe them.

All organisations and institutions whether in childcare or otherwise have strong self-defensive and self-protective impulses.

Many residential care homes were self-contained and isolated; they looked inward and were not linked to the outside social systems. This contributed to the adults' incapacity to listen, to hear or to believe the children and this was and can be a very powerful force which enables abuse to exist and continue.

What we all need to do now, first of all, is to accept the horrendous stories we are hearing and to feel the pain of the people who tell them and to stay with that pain and feel on our own part the guilt, sorrow and shame that these stories of horrific brutality evoke.

Also we need to see that in every disastrous situation, there is potential for new life and new beginnings, and we need to go forward and to find ways of responding to what we have heard that will restore the dignity and the self-worth of the people whose self-worth has been wiped out by abuse.

We need also to find within ourselves the love and the courage to root out evil where we find it and to provide the care and support that children need, and to find also the fearlessness to speak out on every injustice that comes to our attention.

All residential homes need explicit policies, procedures and guidelines, outlining their aims, objectives and methods of working. They need explicit complaints and investigative processes for children and staff through which complaints and grievances can be heard. These were not in place in most residential care homes in Ireland until recently and they may not be in place in all of them today.

We need legislation with clear guidelines and regulations that enables staff and management to care and protect children and provide safeguards for children and staff.

We need a national childcare policy and strategy and plan.

We need one Government department responsible for all childcare under one senior minister who can be held responsible and accountable.

We need adequate resources to ensure that services for children and families can be planned, developed and delivered.

At the end of the day it is all about choices we make and priorities we give to children and the rights of children, especially their right to be heard and responded to. It is all a matter of justice. That is what I am trying to do by writing this article, and it is what I have always tried to do in my work with children in need of care and protection.