Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to have an opportunity to say a few words on this very difficult subject. In my experience as a long-time Member of the House I find it difficult to understand, as Deputy Shatter also pointed out, why successive Governments, particularly those we have had for the last eight or ten years, cannot say with conviction that children's interests will be protected. In my area, which is very rural, the system is so patchy that after five o'clock in the evening there are no emergency social workers available because of insufficient staff at HSE level. I know for a fact that were it not for the security rooms in Garda stations there would be no place for some children late at night. Emergencies of this type happen at a particular time. Nobody knows when the flashpoint will come. It is at that hour that the systems matter. Either they are in place and can be activated or they are not. If for any reason there is a need for intervention due to physical or other types of abuse, unless there is a co-ordinated system whereby people who care for those children — which may not even include their own parents, as we well know — can remove them to safety, nothing can be done. This is a black spot in the administration of the system. It is full of such black spots.

There is nothing wrong with the security rooms, although they are no place for children to be. However, it is hard to imagine that when there is a report of possible abuse in a dysfunctional family at three o'clock in the morning, the only people who can appear at that door on behalf of the State are members of the Garda Síochána. It is no place for them.

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