Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The Ferns Report made for some very disturbing reading. It details the stark reality of the abuse suffered by young people and the lack of support and assistance at their time of greatest need. I pay tribute to the courageous people who gave evidence of their experience of abuse to the inquiry and express my thanks and appreciation to them. Without their witness, the report could not have reached its findings. I also thank Mr. Justice Frank Murphy and his team for the considerable work undertaken by them in producing this report.

It is clear from the report that there was a general failure to recognise the terrible hurt and damage that child sex abuse causes to the victims and their families and that prompt and effective action was not taken to protect vulnerable children over a period of many years. As a society, we must learn from the mistakes of the past and never allow what happened to happen again.

In addition to increasing public awareness and understanding of the horror of child sex abuse, the Ferns Report provides practical and far-reaching recommendations to strengthen child protection measures in organisations working with children and to ensure a speedy and effective response to allegations of abuse. The Government has accepted the report's recommendations in principle and is committed to their implementation by Departments and relevant agencies. My Department will participate fully in the implementation process which is being driven by the National Children's Office under the leadership of my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan.

The fundamental imperative is the protection of the child. Ensuring this requires the full engagement of the Government, the church and the community. Our educational institutions and policies have a key role to play. It is fair to say there has been a major change over the past 15 years in our approach to child abuse. Nonetheless, every effort must be made to preserve and strengthen the more open environment of reporting abuse which has recently developed. While there is a much greater understanding of the horrific nature of child abuse and a much more enlightened approach to treating the problem, it is reasonable to ask, in light of the Ferns Report, whether we are doing enough and whether we can do more to protect children and ensure they grow up in a safe and secure environment.

It is vital that we have effective child protection measures in our various educational settings. In recent years we introduced new child protection guidelines for primary and post-primary schools and clearly defined procedures for reporting allegations or suspicions of child abuse. We have also sought to raise awareness of the issue in the curriculum through social, personal and health education, SPHE, the Stay Safe programme and other initiatives.

Measures have been in place since 1991 to address child protection and child abuse prevention in schools. The 1991 guidelines were replaced by new child protection guidelines for primary schools which issued in 2001 and child protection guidelines for post-primary schools which issued in 2004. The publications were circulated to all schools, together with a copy of Children First, published by the Department of Health and Children. Each school is obliged to follow the guidelines. They emphasise that the safety and well-being of the child is paramount and that there is an obligation on schools to seek to provide pupils with the highest standard of care in order to promote their well-being and protect them from harm.

The Department's guidelines set out the steps to be taken by school personnel should they suspect a child is being abused or are aware of allegations that a child is being abused. They also include guidance for boards of management with regard to dealing with allegations or suspicions of child abuse made about a school employee and for dealing with peer reviews and bullying by young people. A central facet of the guidelines is the requirement for each board of management to designate a senior member of staff as the designated liaison person for the school. That person acts as a liaison with outside agencies such as health boards and as a resource person for any staff member with child protection concerns.

While dealing with investigations relating to allegations made about a school employee are a matter for the school authorities in the first instance, the Department's position on this is very clear. The person being investigated should not have access to children while the investigation is ongoing. In general, the person is suspended, put on administrative leave or in some cases may go on sick leave. The child must be protected.

Yesterday, I referred in the House to the intention to introduce Garda vetting for all employees who have unsupervised access to children in our schools. Currently, Garda vetting conducted in the formal educational sector is in respect of special needs assistants, bus escorts and children detention schools. Some 17 additional staff, three gardaí and 14 clerical officers are being made available to the unit, bringing the total staff complement to 30. This will enable the unit to handle a greater volume of requests from employers. It will commence the augmentation of the vetting arrangements as soon as it takes up its new offices in Thurles.

The provision of the additional staff resources will enable the Garda vetting services to be extended to all persons working with children and vulnerable adults. This will include teachers, caretakers, bus drivers and others working with children. In looking at the position of those with substantial unsupervised access to children and-or vulnerable adults, the issue of how to deal with volunteers and other non-employees with access to children is also being examined.

It goes without saying that our teachers must be given the appropriate support and training to deal professionally and sensitively with child protection issues. In the past few years training has been provided to primary and post-primary principals and teachers on the implementation of the Department's child protection guidelines and the role of the designated liaison person. Pre-service training is also provided by the colleges of education to ensure new teachers coming on stream are familiar with issues of child protection.

We also need to provide support and training for members of boards of management of schools. Over recent years funding has been made available to the various school management bodies for the board of management training. My Department has been developing new funding procedures covering all management bodies according to set criteria, which will include awareness of child protection issues. Support will be provided directly to management bodies to deliver their own training in line with the criteria and to the agreed standards.

Children nowadays are more confident and aware. Even among them, there is a greater awareness of child abuse as a potential threat. Much of this is due to the more open society in which we live. The curriculum has also moved on and has helped to raise awareness of the issue. Social, personal and health education is one of the seven curriculum areas in the revised primary school curriculum introduced in 1999. It has been implemented in all schools since September 2003 and is taught to pupils from junior infants class up to sixth class. From the beginning of their primary schooling children learn in an age appropriate way how they develop, the importance of caring for oneself and others with dignity and respect and how to identify people, places and situations that may threaten personal safety. For example, the curriculum for third and fourth classes provides for the child being enabled to identify situations where he or she is being touched inappropriately, being asked to keep a difficult secret that is worrying or that makes him or her feel uncomfortable.

We also have the Stay Safe programme in primary schools which aims to prevent child abuse. This programme aims to reduce vulnerability to child abuse and bullying through the provision of inservice training for teachers, parent education and personal safety education for children at primary school level. This programme is on offer in the majority of our schools. I encourage those schools that do not offer it to offer it now. It gives children the skills necessary to enable them to recognise and resist abuse and victimisation. It teaches them that they should always tell of any situation they find unsafe, upsetting, threatening, dangerous or abusive. The programme has also been modified for use with children in special education. It can be of real value to children in all our schools.

I and my Department are very conscious of the fact that every child in the country attends our schools, from the age of four or five to 18. These children need our protection. We have strict guidelines, rules and procedures. We will continue to keep these under review because the protection of the child is paramount.

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