Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Monageer report was with the Government for six months before it was published. It should have been possible to go back and check procedures. The procedure now proposed by Fine Gael is the procedure used in 1996 to publish the report into the tragic death of Kelly Fitzgerald. The legal advice obtained never addresses this issue. On the very day we are piercing the veil of secrecy over the abuse of children in institutions in this State we should not be maintaining secrecy over a report published about the tragic death of a family and particularly the deaths of two children who died at the hands of at least one of their parents. Could the Government regard this as a priority?

With regard to the HSE, I have raised the two reports in this House in the past and afforded time for them to be published. Our current child protection services are broken. The apology given by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, is meaningless in the context of children currently at risk-----

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