Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Many of my questions have been answered. I was just thinking, when Ms Duggan made her opening statement, that this goes back to 2013, we are now in 2023 and we are, in fact, ten years on. That says so much to me. I am aware Ms Duggan has apologised, but this is about the bravery of the survivors. We have all learned lessons and I spoke about this in a Topical Issue matter in the Dáil, where I was looking for the independent report to be published. I welcome that and it is important to commend Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, in particular.

I also welcome that Ms Duggan said everything in that report will be implemented and actioned. That is very important. The one thing I take from today is that we should never be in a position like this again for survivors who have been waiting so long for a report ,or whomever this might involve across any organisation. Today, in an overall sense, we are now getting to a good place. It is about the survivors today.

One of the things which worried me and which Ms Duggan spoke about is that there are very significant challenges with staffing and resourcing across the sector. Also, are child protection policies robust enough? What do we need to do and what sort of information do we require? Is it lack of information from people not knowing what they do, because all of us here today agree this is so important, as is timing. We do not ever want this situation to happen again.

What does Ms Duggan believe has been learned from this, how can we make policies more robust, perhaps by looking at more resourcing, and what can we do to ensure this culture, a term she has used on several occasions, is one we cannot allow happen any more?

I thank all of our invited speakers to the committee. We are all thinking of the survivors today.