The report of the Commission of Investigation into paedophile Bill Kenneally did not make a finding of cover-up, conspiracy or collusion, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.He acknowledged, however, “it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty”. He was responding in the Dáil to Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who called for the implementation of the commission’s recommendation that a criminal offence be introduced of misconduct in public office.The report into the crimes of Kenneally, a former basketball coach and member of a well-known Fianna Fáil family, was published on Tuesday. Kenneally pleaded guilty in late 2015 and again in 2022 to multiple cases of child sex abuse in Waterford. He is in jail for the abuse of 15 children between 1979 and 1990.His crimes first came to the attention of Waterford gardaí in 1987, when he made admissions of abuse, but instead of being investigated he received a warning and a referral to a psychologist.The Taoiseach said the Minister for Justice would pursue the need to change the law with the Law Reform Commission.Bacik said the report was unequivocal. “There was a clear dereliction of duty by senior gardaí in dealing with Kenneally’s disgusting crimes,” she said. [ Who is Bill Kenneally? The basketball coach whose crimes had ‘lifelong impact on victims’Opens in new window ]“No institution comes out of the report well, not the gardaí, not the health authorities, not sporting bodies, not Fianna Fáil, not the Catholic Church.”Calling for the criminal offence of misconduct in public office, she said it follows the failure of former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally to contact authorities after he became aware of his cousin’s campaign of abuse in 2001.Bill Kenneally sexually abused, tortured, restrained and blackmailed boys who he had groomed and fed alcohol. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill / The Irish Times The Taoiseach said Judge Michael White was “very clear” about “the central finding of a failure and a dereliction of duty in relation to the way An Garda Síochána dealt with this, particularly in 1987 when the perpetrator Bill Kenneally was in the Garda station and was acknowledging culpability in respect of this”.The Garda failed “to do things properly in terms of taking statements and sending it to the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] at the time” and there were some failings in the health board.Bacik welcomed the Government’s offer of a State apology to Bill Kenneally’s victims, but said “survivors deserve clarity about when that will happen after the ordeal they have suffered”.She also criticised the Minister for Justice for not showing “sufficient respect” for the victims by publishing the 400-page report just 24 hours after they received it.The Taoiseach said what happened “demands a State apology. This is my clear reading so far. There is no equivocation by the commission in terms of that central conclusion”. He hoped to arrange time in the Dáil “to have a proper consideration”.[ Victims of Bill Kenneally performed ‘major public service’, says Children’s Rights AllianceOpens in new window ]Referring to the “behaviour of others”, including former Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Kenneally, he said “the commission is very clear that it fell below the standards that one would expect”. There was a central failure to prosecute, to do “the basic investigative response required to deal with the facts” and the failure to alert others, including the basketball club, “by people who knew”.He added there was a “failure to notify the Fianna Fáil party locally”.Labour party leader Ivana Bacik TD calls for criminal offence of misconduct in public office. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins The Labour leader said there have been “so many of these situations where we’ve seen paedophilia covered up, even facilitated by State agencies, where we’ve seen failures to support and protect victims and survivors”. “I’m thinking of survivors of Eamonn Cook, survivors of industrial schools. I’m thinking of the brave individuals who came forward about the Blackrock Boys, and I’m thinking of the survivors of Michael Shine.”The Taoiseach replied that “we need to let the report speak for itself. It doesn’t have a finding of a cover-up, it doesn’t have a finding of a conspiracy, and it doesn’t have a finding of collusion”. “I think we have to be true to the report of the commission, but it does have a finding of gross dereliction of duty and the need to reform the law in that respect, which the Minister will be now pursuing with the Law Reform Commission.”