Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I commend the Independent Senators for tabling this important and timely motion. I have listened with interest to the various contributions made. I also listened to the Minister's contribution. I wondered initially if it was necessary to table an amendment to the motion. I am starting from the point of view that far too often motions are amended and that there is not adequate tick-tacking beforehand to allow an agreed motion to be tabled. However, I was impressed by what the Minister had to say and I am aware that he takes the issue seriously. I welcome, in particular, the commitment he has made in respect of the forthcoming legislation with which I wish him well, as it is important to be a reforming Minister. The legislation should be supported by all sides of the House.

There is always a difficulty on an issue such as this in that people can, not as a result of insincere motives, try to outdo each other in their expressions of outrage and disgust at the sexual abuse of children and particularly child pornography. There is no doubt that it is one of the horrors of our time. The Internet and related technologies offer many positive opportunities, including advances in education. There is also the importance of the democratisation issue attached to access to the Internet and the free availability of information. In this regard, one has only to think of the challenges facing people in other parts of the world, including China, where there are restrictions on the information they can access and even basic democratic discourse is clamped down on by oppressive regimes. However, with child pornography we see the other side of the coin. The use of the Internet and related technologies takes people to a very dark place, reflecting something very dark in human nature and society.

I have mentioned previously in the House the writer Stephen Rossetti who helped victims of sexual abuse and treated perpetrators. In a book he referred to abuse as a slayer of the soul. When speaking to Senator Jillian van Turnout last week she may have mentioned this; if not, it may have been mentioned by others. There was a particularly sickening instance where a person having left an abusive past, one in which they were abused as a child and exploited for child pornography, tried to put their past behind them and make a new life. They put something very innocent and relating to performance on YouTube and within a short time they were targeted by a former perpetrator or somebody that knew about their past as an exploited child. It was a story that illustrated to me the psychological nature of this type of abuse and the terrible ongoing torture inflicted on children. It also brings home how difficult it can be for people to put their past abuse behind them.

Child abuse is a form of evil in our society that is difficult to explain. Many crimes can be understood as crimes of passion, revenge and so on. This type of crime relates to a particular sickness in human nature. Undoubtedly, in some cases it stems from an extraordinary degree of immaturity and confusion in some of the perpetrators but it arrives at a point where terrible evil is involved. An evil that cannot be wished away by simply referring to it as a sickness or mental issue. It behoves us as parliamentarians to leave no stone unturned. Today I heard arguments about the issue and people said in the Chamber, and I have no doubt that it is true to some extent, that we face a technological challenge as it is not only on websites that some of this pornography exists but in the private exchange of files. The belt and braces approach is always called for when dealing with an issue like this. We should do what we can to ensure that sites are blocked by Internet service providers. This is not an area for light touch regulation. We are not in an era where it is thought best that people regulate themselves. That is no longer the accepted norm in areas like medicine and law and it should not be the norm here. While it is always welcome that Internet service providers show a willingness to regulate themselves, this is an area where we should not fear to legislate to ensure that they do so.

On a positive note, we should pay tribute to people who work with victims of this terrible exploitation and prevent it from happening. The debate ties in with the one we had on trafficking in recent times because women and children are also victims. Children, particularly in the context of today's debate, are victims. We need to do whatever we can, get various Departments of State that deal with various issues to work together, and make sure that this country is always a cold place for anybody that seeks to abuse children. We should also pay tribute to Irish people, and I am thinking of somebody like Fr. Shay Cullen in the Philippines, who have done so much work to tackle those who would abuse children in the sex industry. Their efforts deserve all of our support and we can do our bit as legislators. I look forward to the legislation coming before the House in the autumn.