Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are many challenges in this area and there is much work to be done but we putting building blocks in place that will protect some of those vulnerable children that, undoubtedly, we still have in this country.

That statement of intent is based on an absolute acceptance of the proposition in the motion that "childhood, as a time-specific and unique period in a person's development, is a distinct space from adulthood." That is at the heart of the motion. It is also based on an appreciation of "the difficulties and pressures faced by children and parents as the distinct space between childhood and adulthood becomes increasingly blurred through media, advertising and popular culture." Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell has given us some really vivid examples about that decreasing space and the challenge of continuing to protect that childhood space as much as we can.

Parenting has always been hard for different reasons at different times. There is no question of that. John Millington Synge, the writer, recorded one kind of tragic parenting in his marvellous play, Riders to the Sea, where a mother lost her three sons and gives a poetic account of all her sons drowning, one by one. "They're all together now," she finally says, "and there isn't anything more the sea can do to me..." We would hope that no mother now would go through what that mother went through. Young deaths still happen and grieving is still hard. I think I can probably safely say that the concept of sexualisation of the young child was not one about which the mother in Synge's time had heard much. It was not a real concept for people in the early decades of the 20th century in relation to children. It is interesting to note how much that has changed because now the sexualisation of children, and discussions around it, is a very present concept and is really a dangerous form of theft from children.

There is growing concern that the space of childhood is shrinking. Once upon a time, children became teenagers. Now we have the "tween" culture.
Commercialisation and sexualisation work hand-in-hand, as has been said by both Senators, to shrink the space of childhood; downgrading the concept of childhood; promoting the attainment of premature adulthood; selling a dangerous allure; de-sensitising innocent minds, which is a very issue in our popular cultures today; steering them towards inappropriate, thoughts behaviours and untimely activity. Catapulting little girls and boys into a sexuality for which they are neither physically nor cognitively ready is a form of theft. It is the theft of childhood. For the theft of childhood, no form of restorative justice exists. Once stolen, it is gone forever. It leaves a great gaping hole that can never be fully filled or fully healed for those children.

On the question of the clothing that has been on sale in recent years for children that is inappropriate for their ages, it is not the same for adults and children. Clothes with suggestive slogans are not the same for adults and children. Overtly sexual cuts and styles are not the same for adults and children. Unreal or unbalanced portrayals of an ideal body-image are not the same for adults and children and people make many excuses when it comes to this issue. They say things such as: It was just a joke. No harm was meant. Little girls loved the clothes. Their mothers approved.

It is interesting the way retailers have changed in relation to this issue. When I extended an invitation to the Irish retail sector to respond to increasing concerns about the sexualisation of children's wear, Retail Ireland responded and, in fact, were leaders in this area, and brought forward Ireland's first ever guidelines on the responsible retailing of children's wear.

It is important to note that these guidelines are not just about restricting what retailers can sell. They provide constructive guidance on best practice on a range of issues such as styling, slogans, age-appropriateness, size, labelling and marketing. The code is playing an important and constructive role in informing future decision-making and ordering of the next season's clothes by retailers. For example, on the appropriateness of new and emerging fashion trends for children while further providing a framework within which retailers can responsibly consider and respond to growing concerns over body image among children.

Various retailers have been very happy to sign up to the guidelines. They include Arnotts, Brown Thomas, Clerys, Debenhams, House of Fraser, Marks & Spencer, Next, Pennys, Tesco and TK Maxx. Dunnes Stores is not a signatory but it has responded directly to me and indicated that it complies with best practice.

I am happy to report that the number of complaints regarding inappropriate childrenswear has fallen. However, I urge parents to continue to feedback any concerns or complaints about the issue. Retail Ireland is now working with the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium to draw up a unified strengthened text for the entire island which will be published in the summer. A North-South element is an important step.

In terms of the protection of children and of childhood, progress of this kind is very good. Voluntary progress is twice as good which is what the retailers have done and delivered. That is the culture of co-operation that we need to have if we are going to change this complex topic being discussed tonight.

It is often said that it takes a village to rear a child. If that is true then it falls to every stakeholder, as Senator van Turnhout has said, to contribute and discuss this culture and to make the best possible decisions. We all must play a role in protecting children and to protecting childhood from early sexualisation and undue gender stereotyping. We must be very vigilant in that regard.

In the context of what is being discussed here tonight, the early sexualisation, the destructive and inappropriate gender stereotyping where young children are asked to wear very inappropriate clothes and make-up. We have seen this happen in a variety of settings. I commend the Irish Dancing Commission for introducing additional rules prohibiting the use of make-up in the under-10 age groups. That is an important initiative which the Senator mentioned here tonight. Many people do a double-take when they see extremely talented young girls dance wearing make-up that is clearly inappropriate for very young children to wear. The fact that it is inappropriate has been recognised by the decision taken by the Irish Dancing Commission. It is also an example of voluntary progress and a culture of co-operation that is needed to protect children and safeguard them.

Senator O'Donnell referred to activities that demean children and situations where voluntary progress does not happen because money and notoriety goes along with certain activities. I agree with her that one of the activities is child beauty pageants. The idea of a child beauty pageant leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth. It is the promotion of beauty pageants for financial gain by a contest where little children are judged and turned into winners and losers based not on skills that they have learned or an ability that they can prove but on how glammed up their parents can make them. We are talking about two, three, four and five-year olds. We are not talking about teenagers but under 10-year olds.

I believe and agree with Senator van Turnhout that this kind of pageantry runs counter to the values set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention might not have prevented hotels from hosting such pageants last year. Let us remember that many of the hotels were under great financial pressure. A contest like this, which involves hundreds of children and their parents and also provides lots of photo opportunities for publicity, must have been seriously tempting to many of them. The response of the hotels is encouraging and praiseworthy. Each of the hotels approached by Universal Royalty - the company that promoted the pageant last September - declined the opportunity to host the event. In the interests of children those hotels turned down the opportunity to make money. Those venues must be congratulated for doing so along with the Irish Hotels Federation for opposing child beauty pageants in Ireland. This is another example of voluntary progress and of the culture of co-operation needed. I hope that public opinion and the responsible position of many players will continue to play a role in ensuring that further attempts to hold such pageants are also dissuaded.

I want Ireland to be a cold house for child pageants but that does not always require legislation. Legislative proposals in France on banning pageants ran into difficulties in light of criticisms and legislative difficulties regarding the vagueness around the specifics of what types of events were addressed. I hope we will not have to go there in Ireland. I have asked the Department to examine options and to commission an international review of responses made by other countries to these issues in order to inform the Government's response and future actions. I can confirm that my Department has commissioned the Centre for Effective Studies to undertake the review this year - 2014 - which will build on another research project. At present, UCC is conducting a research project that was commissioned and funded by my Department through the scholarship programme of research. It is looking at data on the commercialisation and sexualisation of children in Ireland which is important research that will be published before the summer.

In conclusion, I thank Senator Van Turnhout for submitting the motion which I and the Government are happy to support. In standing together we are reinforcing the culture of co-operation. Similarly, we must all continue to foster co-operation in order to ensure society stands together which includes: parents, media, retailers, event organisers, businesses and many more players. We all stand together to protect children and safeguard the space of childhood.