Ciarán Cannon (Progressive Democrats)

I would like to share my time with Senator Cummins.

I am 43 years of age and I do not recall in my lifetime a greater veil of shame, horror, angst and despair descending upon this country as a result of what we have heard over recent days. The contribution by Mr. O'Brien on Monday night on RTE laid bare for us all the horror that every single person who was the subject of this report had to endure. It was real and it was passionate. If any one of us was given the opportunity of being able to travel back to the mists of time to that night when that little child was first raped and was then beaten to a pulp the following morning, then we would grab that chance this very minute and extract him from that environment. We would do everything possible in our power to take every one of those children out of that environment and ensure they were never subjected to that kind of torture and degrading treatment ever again.

Unfortunately, we cannot travel back in time. All we can do at this point is try to care for the people who suffered, put in place the kind of support they need and hope we can somehow work with them in finding the kind of peace they deserve. I am convinced the majority of them will never find that peace, but it is incumbent upon us all to work with them in doing that.

In the Ireland of 2009, we can answer the call of children who are still suffering abuse and violence. It is in the power of every one of us in this House to answer the 236,000 calls that went unanswered to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children last year. Senator O'Toole raised this previously. A total of 236,000 children rang that number hoping to find at the end of that line a person who would offer them the advice, support and care they needed. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ISPCC, published statistics for last year which report that it took a total of 650,000 calls, of which 414,000 were answered and 236,000 were unanswered. Some 13% of the calls that were answered were from children suffering severe abuse and violence. Assuming the same case mix across all of the calls, this to me means that just over 30,000 calls from children suffering the same abuse and violence were unanswered. This is utterly unacceptable in the Ireland of 2009. Celtic tiger or no Celtic tiger our priority, in the 1940s and 1950s, should have been to answer the call of the children abused at that time. More important, given current resources we have no excuse for allowing that type of neglect to happen. Some 30,000 children suffering abuse and violence did not get the response they deserve.

I spoke earlier by phone with the ISPCC. It is putting in place a programme through which it hopes to achieve by 2011 a 100% response to calls. That is two years away and is not soon enough. I asked the ISPCC what it would cost to ensure every call, 24 hours a day, would be answered. I was told it would cost an additional €3 million over the next three years, of which it undertook to raise €1.5 million and had asked the Government to respond with the balance, but was told that could not happen. For all the hand-wringing and platitudes engaged in the past couple of days, what greater symbolic response could we give to the children of Ireland who today continue to suffer abuse and violence than to say that as and from next week every call to the ISPCC Childline would be answered for the paltry investment, on our part, of roughly €500,000 per annum? No call unanswered must be the response and it must happen now.