James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Shatter for placing this very important motion before the House.

What has become known as the Roscommon incest case is a tragedy for all concerned. It is a case that generates anger, revulsion and pity in equal measure. More than any other emotion, sympathy should be to the forefront of our reactions: sympathy for the children let down by the system and also sympathy for the mother who was left adrift to cope with the difficulties and addictions that drove her to commit unmentionable crimes against her own children and the innocence of childhood.

It is debatable whether a custodial sentence for the mother of these unfortunate children is the correct response. This sentence may make us all feel better. Justice has been seen to have been done. Or has it? What is justice in this case? We have a situation where a mother, the perceived protector of her family, apparently abused the trust placed in her to protect her children from all harm and to provide them with a loving and caring home. However, rather than pointing the finger at this poor unfortunate woman who was crying out for help that was not there surely the Government and the HSE deserve to stand in the dock, accused by all of gross neglect of these children and their mother.

No woman who has received the necessary help to overcome addiction and abnormal behaviour will deliberately set out to harm her children. On the other hand, this poor unfortunate is a different matter. She is the victim of adverse circumstances who had nowhere to turn for help. This woman has offended public morality but how much she is responsible is open to debate What about her rights to the full benefit of social services? These were conspicuously absent in this case, both for the mother and for the unfortunate children. Perhaps we should say that this woman is more to be pitied than condemned and we should look to our collective consciences to see how the system let her down and how we can ensure that such a tragedy will never occur again.

The chain of errors that led to these children being left in an appalling position cannot be brushed under the carpet. It is not enough for the Minister of State with responsibility for children and young people to say after the event that the health service staff should have taken these children into care "an awful lot sooner". What he, the relevant Minister of State, should be asking, loudly, is why they were not taken into care. Could the Minister meet those six children, look them in the eye and say she, as the person charged with their welfare, did her best for them? I think not. As with the extensive litany of failures she has presided over, platitudes after the event only serve to highlight the inadequacies of the Minister's tenure and the buck passing which goes on between herself and the HSE.

This situation is a major indictment of the refusal of the Government to draw up plans for a referendum on children's rights. What does it take to force the Government to acknowledge its duty to our children and to copper-fasten their right to safety? Lip service is periodically paid to such a need and becomes more vocal as need arises, only to fade away again until the next outrage is publicised. No Government can claim to have the well-being of its children at heart that refuses to put every possible constitutional, legislative and administrative protection in place to ensure their safety. It appears that in the Ireland of the 21st century, the child is invisible and his or her voice is never heard.

This country is on its knees, with its head hanging low in terms of the horrors unleashed on its children. While clerical abuse has been the main focus of our outrage and horror, surely the abuse of innocent children in their own home by the main nurturing figure, under the eyes of the authorities, is beyond comprehension. Where was the concern of the people involved in the day-to-day lives of the children, who had nobody to give them support? Did their immediate family, their neighbours, their friends' parents and their teachers not feel that action needed to be taken? Surely their concerns should have radiated out to the wider circle of the HSE, care workers, gardaí and others.

Have we become so isolated in our own worlds, cocooned in the pursuit of our own advancement, that we can no longer see what is right in front of us, and the suffering that is obviously being experienced by some in our midst? The breakdown of communities and a sense of community is facilitating abuse to be carried out before our eyes but we do not or choose not to notice. The sooner we acknowledge that intervention and meddling are two separate actions, and allow that concern, not malicious intent, drives most calls for action, the better for our children.

While the Minister and the HSE must shoulder the ultimate blame for this horror, legal obstacles faced by health service personnel are a major contributory factor. The Constitution rightly favours parents over third parties but we must acknowledge and act on the fact families can be extremely dangerous places for children to grow up in. It is unbelievable that 16 years have passed since Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness, as she then was, recommended a constitutional amendment to protect the rights of children in the family. Mrs. Justice McGuinness's recommendations arose from her legitimate contention that the high emphasis on the rights of the family in the Constitution may consciously, or unconsciously, be interpreted as giving a higher value to the rights of parents than to the rights of the children. These recommendations arose from the Kilkenny incest case but it will take the Roscommon incest case to finally see them acted upon.

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