Fr Shay Cullen Fr Shay Cullen was praised for his work tackling sexual crimes against children by Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin as he relaunched the Sex Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2018.
Speaking in the Dáil October 19, Mr Devlin acknowledged Fr Cullen’s “distinguished record of working with women and children in the Philippines to protect them from sex slavery and exploitation”.
He thanked Fr Cullen and Gráinne Kenny of the PREDA Foundation for their support of the bill, which would “regulate and restrict, where appropriate, convicted sex offenders from travelling abroad… to protect people outside the State from serious harm”.
Ms Kenny, the Irish representative of PREDA – founded by Fr Cullen – lobbied Mr Devlin to take up the bill after its progress stalled, Mr Devlin told The Irish Catholic.
“Credit where credit is due, she was very vocal to me, she wanted me to take it over,” Mr Devlin explained. “She brought to me the benefits of this bill, and didn’t want to see it lapse.”