Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

As regards the points raised by Deputy Finian McGrath and Deputy Crowe, parents are central to this matter. The programme recognises that parents are the most important people in a child's life. It also recognises that a child who is upset is most likely to turn to its parents in the first instance. That is why, before the programme is even introduced into a school, there are parents' meetings, including an introductory meeting explaining the whole programme. Even after that, parents have the right not to allow their children to participate in it. In the past, I suspect that because a large body of parents within a particular area or school were against the programme, rather than implementing the programme for a few children and not knowing what to do with the others, the school did not introduce the programme at all.

I am satisfied that when we get the final survey results we will find the programme is being introduced in the vast majority of cases. I accept what Deputy Crowe said — it is a welcome step that the bishops' commission has stated it would like to see the programme being implemented. Hopefully that will allay some of the fears people have about the programme. While such fears are genuinely unfounded, we must respect the rights of parents concerning a programme like this.

As Deputy Finian McGrath is aware, we never know how many children are saved or protected from situations by the Stay Safe programme. We only ever hear of the terrible stories of children who did not know how to protect themselves or where structures were not in place to protect them. I hope that as time goes on we will hear of fewer cases of children who are severely abused because they will know how to protect themselves and proper procedures will be in place. Equally, it is vitally important that every school has policies and procedures in place to protect their teachers as well as their children. That is a crucial issue for boards of management, who are responsible for recruiting, selecting and managing their schools on a day to day basis. They must ensure the principal and teachers in their schools are protected.

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