Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

Like the previous speaker, I do not intend to use all my allotted time. I fully support the request from the Minister of State for an extension of time. This already has taken place on previous occasions. The work being carried by the commission's two committees is extremely important and adequate time must be granted to allow it to carry out its remit. Those who simply come to talk in a therapeutic sense and those who come to go further with their cases must be allocated the fullest time to be listened to in the confidential committee and the investigation committee. Those who wish to go further must be given time so a full investigation by the committee and its members into what has happened to them can be engaged in.

As I heard the Minister of State speak this morning, I thought of how short the timespan is for people. One looks back to 1999 and recalls the then Taoiseach's apology and the great uproar the matter correctly occasioned in people's minds, in newspapers and in public opinion. I know of people who, when the stories of those years emerged, have been obliged to work themselves up to establish how they would go about their business. I was amazed by how many wanted to come and be therapeutically listened to but who did not wish to be involved in further investigation. In many cases, their lives had gone on and changed and while they would never lose their sense of revulsion and, frequently, their sense of self-blame for what took place, they still did not wish to go any further.

I think of the 1,090 victims of abuse who brought their experience to the confidential committee on an entirely confidential basis. It was a wonderful service to give them and they in turn availed of it. However, in so doing, one wonders how much more dreadful it must have been for them as they went into their abuse and relived it. How awful to bring back the ghosts of the past and all that happened to them. It must have raised questions about how they now would cope with what would become a changed and altered life.

I note the Minister of State's remarks on the holding of public hearings into a number of specific institutions. Members have seen sight of and have heard of them. I also understand the commission will publish a report. I am glad that report will be published as soon as it is completed, which is, rightly, part of the remit of this independent commission.

I was interested in the last sentence, "The work of the commission and its public report is an opportunity for them [the victims] to receive the kind of respectful and sympathetic hearing to which they are entitled." Of course it is, but one wonders, because in the nature of things this will be sensationalist. To those who have suffered, this may mean the reopening of wounds. I commend all who came to the commission, whether on a confidential basis or an investigative basis, but what must it have cost them? I spoke to two people in the constituency who had appointments with the committee verified some years ago. They had to lift themselves into a proper state of mind to attend the committee and I commend them on their courage in bringing forth what happened to them. Each had the same story to tell and each felt such things must never happen again. A child or a person in a vulnerable situation should never again be subjected to a person in authority who puts him or her in such a position. Some will say that child care has come a long way and we have changed how we deal with young people, but fresh difficulties constantly arise.

I listened to other Members of the House this morning who spoke of judgments yesterday. Deputy Brian Hayes talked about the need for proper vetting procedures for those in authority around young people. All these are fresh areas. Only in recent years we saw the dreadful Soham case involving two young girls. There were other cases previously. For all the good work carried out by this commission there are still hidden areas of life where young people are abused and their rights impinged upon. The manner in which they should be sustained in life is constantly being overridden.

I hope the commission's report and conclusions will point the way forward. Those of us on relevant committees or working in the area of child protection and children's rights will learn many lessons from this and the silence endured by so many for so long will never be allowed again. The young voices that say what they must will be listened to, not only because we must listen but because we respect them. We must transmit an aura of respect towards young people. Young people should no longer merely be seen and not heard; they should be heard and seen. We are now engaging in the re-establishment of children's rights in our committee and we seek to ensure young people find their voices and have the necessary confidence in themselves to go through their youth and teenage years and emerge as confident adults. That is what we all hope for.

I support the request for extra time and I look forward with alacrity to the publication of the report.

See this speech in context