Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. The information booklet is very good and I understand it will be delivered to every home. A number of people have asked me why this referendum has taken so long and perhaps the Minister can explain that because I am unable to. Apparently it is 19 years since Ms Justice Catherine McGuinness first prompted this idea and people have been asking me why it has taken so long to get to this point. They want to know why people have been allowed to continue to abuse children physically and mentally while the State dithered. In that context, the State has failed children. I ask the Minister to respond to that question because I am struggling to answer it on the doorsteps. I know what I would like to say but I am restricted.

My main advice to the public when they ask what they can do is to be the eyes and ears of their communities. I tell them that they know the children in their areas and to watch out for them. In my own community, there are people who know what others eat for their breakfast. They must also know when children are not being looked after properly. I am trying to emphasise to people that child abuse and neglect is everyone's problem. It is not just an issue for the State, social services, the Garda Síochána or teachers but also for every one of us as individuals. We all know of neglected or abused children in our communities. We meet them every day. In my previous life as a community volunteer, I regularly dealt with difficult children in the youth club at my local community centre whose older siblings also had behavioural problems connected with their family problems. It is sad to say that there are some families who have had difficulties over three generations and who struggle in vain to keep their children out of prison and away from anti-social behaviour.

Perhaps this is not an issue for the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs but I have grave concerns about the money that is spent on projects in communities. I want to know where the money is going because in many of those projects, people are dealing with the second and third generations of the same eight to ten families. There is something radically wrong when the same families are filing through the door of community projects, year after year, generation after generation.

The referendum information leaflet states that "the views and wishes of the child should be taken into account, as long as the child is sufficiently mature to make this appropriate". How will the State and its agents define "mature" in that context?