Tom Clonan (Independent)
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I thank Ms Gallagher for her detailed evidence. I will try to be brief because she has covered so much ground. I first thank her for all the extraordinary human rights work she does in the UK and elsewhere. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak at a graduation ceremony at UCD a couple of years ago. My eldest guy, who has gone well past the tooth fairy, graduated in law at UCD. I will be telling my fellow Senators about Senator Malcolm Byrne's trailblazing campaigning but he is not here today so I will do that when he is present.

With regard to areas of concern, one of the phrases used was “worst in the world” with regard to information technology and so on. Ms Gallagher herself talked about Ireland being “child blind” when it comes to issues like trafficking and so on. Historically, Ireland had a very poor track record in its treatment of women and children and it continues to this day. Ms Gallagher mentioned CAMHS and people will be aware of the Kerry CAMHS - I do not want to use the word “scandal” because it is far more profound than that. Children were subjected to a regime of prescription that was completely inappropriate, with medics who did not have higher specialist training inappropriately employed in that context. That is a very highly regulated area where there are huge levels of governance, oversight and audit yet in that environment, young adults and children were harmed in that way and it happened over a prolonged period of time. What chance do children and young adults in the periphery have, those who are in less well regulated environments?

I was at a committee meeting earlier where we talked about children who are on waiting lists for treatment for scoliosis. They are allowed to deteriorate to the point where the scoliotic curve becomes so extreme that really radical, complex surgery is required and it leads to life-limiting and life-altering outcomes for children. Again, that is happening to Irish children in a highly regulated, highly overseen area with lots of governance, oversight procedures and audit, and it has even led to the death of one child.

My own son is one of the children who was impacted in that way, and he had to wait until 2018 to have his surgery when he was 17 years old, whereas he should have had it when he was 12. The curve was so pronounced that his head was almost touching his elbow. If you did that to a cat or a dog in Ireland, the animal would be taken from you and you would probably face some sanction, but in our most highly organised, safe spaces where people go for help, they experience harm.

Ms Gallagher has dealt with many of the technical areas. I went to college in the 1980s and in my first career, I worked as a primary school teacher in a disadvantaged area of Dublin. As it was a disadvantaged area, there was inequality, but we did not have children living in family hubs, temporary accommodation or emergency accommodation and we did not have them falling asleep in class. I congratulate Ms Gallagher on her appointment to her professorial role in UCD. She has been away from the Republic for a period of time. On return, does she think we have actually deteriorated? As a society, are we going backwards? Is there greater inequality? I suspect there is, and that is my lived experience.

On a second question, Ms Gallagher has been in the UK for a considerable period of time. With regard to our attitude towards women and children, our failings and our “child blind” orientation, does Ms Gallagher think there is something cultural there? Are we outliers in Europe? Are we different from our cousins across the water or in other European Union jurisdictions? This goes back to that phrase “worst in the world”. I think Ireland is the worst country in the European Union to have a disability, to have a mental health issue or to be vulnerable in any way, for example, to be elderly on a trolley, and I wonder why that is. We characterise ourselves as being a warm people, we are all about family, we compare ourselves to the Italians and all this kind of stuff, but we are kind of brutal and we seem to have become a very cold house for people who have any kind of vulnerability. No pressure, but I would be curious to know if Ms Gallagher has a view on that or does it align with her experience.