Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I thank Deputy Howlin for sharing time.

A wave of revulsion swept across the nation as the details of the Roscommon child abuse case emerged during the course of last week. This case of appalling abuse, while shocking, is a symptom of the thoroughly defective system of child protection in operation across this State. Each year, approximately 2,500 cases of suspected child abuse are reported to the social services. We have no system of mandatory reporting so this figure may only be scratching the surface. The 2002 Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland, SAVI, report states that — I must emphasise this — more than a quarter of men and women had experienced some level of childhood sexual abuse.

The unimaginable suffering inflicted upon the children in Roscommon highlights the urgent need to strengthen children's rights and to greatly improve resources to protect vulnerable children. Sinn Féin has consistently and repeatedly called for the rights of children to be enshrined in the Constitution and to be protected fully in legislation. For the past number of days members of the public have queried how it could be possible that a person could abuse their family in this manner and receive only seven years in prison. The answer is simply that this happened because the abuser was prosecuted under archaic legislation owing to the ineptitude of a Government that until 2006 had failed to implement a law providing lengthier sentences for the offences committed in this case.

However, constitutional and legislative changes alone will not guarantee the safety of all children in all circumstances. We need child protection to be robust enough to prevent and punish sexual abuse. We, as a society, have a shared and collective responsibility to exercise vigilance and a willingness to speak up if we have cause for concern within our communities. Also, we need urgent measures to enhance the social services for vulnerable children.

The issues highlighted by the Roscommon case are not new. Last May, an RTE "Prime Time Investigates" programme revealed the horrific extent of the child protection crisis in this State. Children are being abused and neglected or left at risk of abuse and neglect even though their files are in the hands of the HSE and they are known to be in grave danger. That situation cannot be allowed to continue.

Increased resources, training and other measures are needed immediately to ensure that sexual assaults and child sexual abuse are thoroughly and sensitively investigated and prosecuted. Victims-survivors need to receive the necessary support to proceed with and complete a prosecution. A new, robust and specific law prohibiting child sexual abuse is needed in the context of a complete review and overhaul of sexual offences legislation and full enshrinement of children's rights.

There are suggestions by those in the treatment sector that the number of people in the State with harmful sexual behaviour is far above the 3,000 mark. Yet, despite this distressing figure, there are monumental gaps in a health service which is failing on every level to protect children and families, assess suspected abusers and treat offenders. There is no one system of assessing an allegation of abuse or potential for a person to re-offend and there is no standard method of treatment or rehabilitation for those who abuse. Where there is what appears to be a decent system in the first instance, we find it is wholly under-funded. Social workers are overloaded with cases and have no uniform method of tracking a person's risk of offending or, equally, of tracking any risk that a person will be abused. The Children Act 2001 gives health boards powers to intervene where there is suspected abuse and to provide support services but this Act has not yet been fully implemented. These may be some of the reasons it took social services eight years to take the children of the Roscommon abuse case into care.

A constitutional referendum on the position of children within our society will only partially solve the problem. Fully resourcing a system where cases of abuse are dealt with on an ad hoc emergency basis will only partially solve the problem. It is clear now that a massive overhaul is needed across the board. Constitutional guarantees to protect children are mere lip-service unless authorities are resourced to prevent and combat neglect and abuse.

The Roscommon child abuse case is a tragic example of a failed system based on dealing with the aftermath of abuse rather than preventing it. This is not a time for mere hand-wringing, it is a time for making changes to a child protection structure that does not work. The history of child protection in this State is marked by inquiry after inquiry. National outrage ensued after the Kilkenny incest case, the death of Kelly Fitzgerald and the case of Sophia McColgan. Yet, the Government has failed to learn any lessons from these instances where the State abjectly failed in its duties to protect those who were vulnerable.

Are we now to see a further inquiry that will produce a report that will gather dust on a shelf for years while its recommendations are ignored? Must we again be witness to another shocking case of child abuse, such as that of the Roscommon children, when yet another inquiry will be demanded and the whole performance enacted again? What exactly will it take for change to occur in how we protect our children? While I welcome and support this motion in the name of the Fine Gael Deputies, it must be said that inquiries are worth nothing if their results are not acted upon. However, I wish to record my welcome of the willingness of Norah Gibbons of Barnardo's to participate in an inquiry into the Roscommon case and to express confidence that she will exercise her energies and skills, and those of her organisation, to ensure that action does indeed follow on her participation in and production of a report and recommendations regarding this tragic case.

Until radical changes are made to the child protection system Government inaction, under-funding and under-resourcing will amount to complicity in making the lives of some of the most abused and vulnerable children in society all the more perilous. We must accept that there are many other children at risk of the same abuse and neglect as the Roscommon children, some of whom at least are known to the health services. My Sinn Féin colleagues and I implore the Government to make the requisite changes so that more children do not have to suffer such degradation and what must be a deep inner pain.

See this speech in context