He represented the views of the Holy See to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, where he advocated for debt relief for less developed countries.

On 26 April 2004, following the acceptance of Cardinal Connell's resignation by Pope John Paul II, Martin automatically succeeded him as Archbishop of Dublin.

[7] His remarks preceded the Congregation for Catholic Education's publication in November of a document on the same subject and later clarification that banned homosexuals who did not live chastely for at least three years.

Today for the Church to make a credible statement on many aspects of public life or simply to talk about faith you start out with the opposite.

[13] Martin addressed this topic again on Holy Thursday 2009, saying that the two biggest problems facing young people were the Catholic Church's condemnation of gay couples and the question of suicide.

He accepted that this was partly the Church's fault because young people were much more questioning today than previously and he urged his priests to offer services in the parish that would be geared more towards their particular concerns.

Where are the focal points where we are helping young people to find an interpretation of their generosity, idealism and questioning in the light of the challenge and of the beauty of the message of Jesus Christ?

Urging the congregation to work to strengthen the fabric of society and make it more caring, he said self-indulgence could lead to corruption, total disregard for the rights of others, a breakdown of community and violence.

Violence, he added, was "a continual threat to the harmony of society" in Ireland, was "profoundly anti-democratic" and attempted to "limit the effectiveness of community through a climate of fear".

[19] On 26 November 2009, the Murphy Report into abuse carried out by priests and covered up to varying degrees by the four preceding Archbishops of Dublin, namely, John Charles McQuaid, Dermot Ryan, Kevin McNamara, and Desmond Connell, was published.

He pointed out that those bishops named in the report, but no longer serving in the Dublin archdiocese, could not tailor their responses to people in their current dioceses.

[26] Asked if the meeting and the ensuing Vatican statement would go some way to answering criticism about the perceived silence of the Holy See in the wake of the publication of the report, Martin said: "What appeared to us today is that maybe things were not said but certainly people were reflecting on matters".

Marie Collins, who was abused in 1960 by a priest when she was a patient at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said: "I can’t say I was disappointed because I didn’t have any high hopes."

Acknowledging the sincerity of the pope's call for prayers for those abused and their families, and possible initiatives where reorganisation of the Irish Church was concerned, she pointed out the statement "doesn't deal with the past.

[35] Archbishop Martin welcomed the pope's statement, describing it not as a final word but as "a further step in the process of renewal and healing in the Catholic Church in Ireland following the crisis of the sexual abuse of children".

[36] In response to a journalist's question following publicity given to Cardinal Brady's role in canonical investigations in 1975 concerning paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, Martin commented: "I never tell people to resign.

"[37] In October 2010, the four metropolitan archbishops of Ireland, Michael Neary of Tuam, Seán Brady of Armagh, Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Dermot Clifford of Cashel and Emly, met for high-level talks with heads of Vatican congregations regarding the apostolic visitation.

[42] In March 2010, Martin welcomed an announcement by Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe that his department "will shortly be providing an initial list of about 10 urban areas that can be used to test the concept of reducing the number of Catholic schools".

[43] Minister O'Keefe said that "the issue of the Catholic Church divesting itself of certain schools was originally explicitly raised by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and it has also found expression in the work of the Bishops' Conference and through its engagement with my department."

The Vatican should also support the reporting of cases to the State authorities and the carrying out of audits to show exactly where the situation was in relation to child protection.

In a letter to the priests of the Dublin diocese the August before, Martin said that since the prior Roman Missal was introduced in 1975, "many additional texts have been made available for use.

"This synod can't simply repeat what was said 20 years ago," Archbishop Martin told journalists at a briefing in the Vatican halfway through the two weeks of discussions.

The questionnaire before the synod asked Catholics around the world a range of questions on family life including issues such as divorced and remarried couples, same-sex unions and contraception.

[49] Archbishop Martin said this Synod on the family had been very "different" but it would be misleading to suggest that it will lead to immediate change in relation to "celebrity" issues such as homosexuality and communion for the divorced, explaining: "There can be a development of doctrine in the sense that we can understand the same doctrine in a different way, but a change whereby, overnight, you say that what was wrong is now right, that is just not on the cards.

[51] Archbishop Martin has said that 2016 comments by Raymond Cardinal Burke on Islam's supposed desire to "govern the world" are unhelpful at a time when Europe reels in the aftermath of a spate of terror attacks.

Jacques Hamel, in Normandy as "something that no religion would stand over," adding that the atrocity in the small parish church of Saint Etienne du Rouvray has been "horrifying to everyone" and that people have been "absolutely stunned by the brutality" of it.

Speaking from Poland where he was attending World Youth Day, Martin stressed that education is the basis for real tolerance as well as knowledge and respect for other religions.

While Burke, in an interview on his new book, said that Islam seeks to govern the world and that the only way to save Western civilization is to return it to its Christian roots, Martin countered: "I don't think that helps at all."

He continued saying: "(That) the conformist Ireland of the Archbishop McQuaid era changed so rapidly and with few tears, was read as an indication of a desire for change, but perhaps it was also an indication that the conformism was covering an emptiness and a faith built on a faulty structure to which people no longer really ascribed" and that "The Catholic Church in Ireland will inevitably become more a minority culture.

Addressing a Church celebration of the World Day of the Sick in Clontarf, Archbishop Martin said: "We stand at an important moment regarding the future of our Irish society."