Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte has said he was “shocked” at the revelations contained in the BBC documentary programme which focused on the Catholic Church's handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.
Mr Rabbitte said he was shocked at the notion that Fr Brendan Smyth - whom he described as "a marauding paedophile" - could have been brought under control “so many years earlier”.
Allegations made against Cardinal Seán Brady in the BBC This World documentary said a church inquiry team that included the then Fr Brady failed to pass on allegations of abuse to parents of some of the vicims of Smyth in 1975.
"I am shocked at the notion that this marauding paedophile - Fr Smyth - could have been brought under control so many years earlier and could have saved so many young people from so much sorrow and distress,” Mr Rabbitte said.
"It is a great shame that there weren't earlier interventions and it seems to me that there ought to have been."
When asked whether he believed Dr Brady should resign, Mr Rabbitte said: “The church authorities should have done more. I don't want to be personal about the cardinal, I don't know the detail.”
However, Mr Rabbitte said there is an onus on the individual to report such activity to the relevant authorities.
“This notion of 'I did my bit' and 'it was up to those higher up the chain to take decisions' is not an adequate explanation," he said.
"On a purely human basis, if you knew that there was a predatory paedophile in the community, I think as an ordinary citizen, I think you'd be minded to do something about it. It's a great pity that so many young children suffered as a result of inactivity in containing his predations."