The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has apologised to the hundreds of people who suffered abuse at the hands of clergy.

In a frank statement responding to yesterday’s damning report by The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, Cardinal Sean Brady said he was “deeply ashamed” of the catalogue of cruelty.

The Archbishop of Armagh said Mr Justice Ryan’s five volume report, which took nine years and cost about £65m to complete, threw new light on a “dark period of the past”.

He said: “The publication of this comprehensive report and analysis is a welcome and important step in establishing the truth, giving justice to victims and ensuring such abuse does not happen again.

“This report makes it clear that great wrong and hurt were caused to some of the most vulnerable children in our society. It documents a shameful catalogue of cruelty, neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse perpetrated against children.

“I am profoundly sorry and deeply ashamed that children suffered in such awful ways in these institutions. Children deserved better and especially from those caring for them in the name of Jesus Christ.

“I hope the publication of the report will help to heal the hurts of victims and to address the wrongs of the past. The Catholic Church remains determined to do all that is necessary to make the Church a safe, life-giving and joyful place for children.”

Maeve Lewis, director of support group One in Four, said everyone was to blame for the abuse. “These children were not invisible,” she said.

Sinn Fein MLA Michelle O'Neill, deputy chair of the Assembly’s health committee, called for the report’s recommendations to be fully implemented.

She said: “Our first and last concern should be the survivors of abuse and the memory of those who did not survive. The government must implement the report’s recommendations to alleviate or otherwise address the effects of the abuse on those who suffered. It must also implement the recommendations to prevent, where possible, the incidence of abuse of children in institutions and to protect children from such abuse.

“The nightmare of child abuse is not a thing of the past, it is happening every day.

“Most of this abuse takes place in the family home.” Eileen Calder from the Rape Crisis Centre has called for a similar investigation in Northern Ireland. She said: “It is time that a judicial inquiry with a similar remit was launched in the north, where we know abuse just as horrific was perpetrated for years in schools and children's homes.”