Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The assets that the religious congregations will contribute to the trust must be identified. However, they must contribute to 50% of the redress fund separately. There has been no such commitment following the meeting. Let no one fool himself or herself. Will the Taoiseach clarify the intentions of the congregations and orders when he next meets them? The public has a right to know, as do the survivors of institutional abuse. I do not want the Dáil to go into recess, leaving the Taoiseach's office and the religious orders and congregations to do a merry dance for weeks or months, hoping that pressure will recede from the latter as time passes. Pressure must be maintained.

At no stage should we be under the illusion that the religious orders are more at fault than the State. They are equally at fault. The State put young children into institutions and abandoned them, as the report comprehensively describes. The State did not ensure that its own guidelines were properly applied. The then Department of Education received a myriad of reports on children being physically and sexually abused in institutions, but it looked the other way.

Deputy Ó Caoláin referred to a 1954 Dáil debate, when Captain Cowen brought to the attention of the then Minister for Education a vicious and brutal attack on a young child. I was going to bring the same report to the House's attention. In 1954, a Deputy told the House that a child had been assaulted in a manner that should have had every alarm bell ringing, but everyone involved in the exchange in the Chamber looked the other way and the world continued on as if nothing needed to be done. Judging from the cases that came before the redress board, many other cases of physical and sexual abuse of young boys were regularly perpetrated in that very same institution over the following years. If someone had done something during the 1950s, lives might not have been blighted and so grievously damaged, but the State looked the other way. It should never do so again.

The contribution of the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Deputy Barry Andrews, was interesting. It was different from any contribution he has made in the House since his appointment. In the past two years, a period encompassing his predecessor and him, I have made the case in the House that our child protection guidelines of 1999 are not being uniformly applied throughout the country. Children were at risk yesterday, last week and last year and are still at risk. Being at risk, a child's situation is reported to one of the HSE's 32 child care officers. However, the plight of children is being ignored because the system is broken. Consistently, the Minister of State has defended the indefensible in the House.

I have been critical of the fact that no real-time information is available to him on what is occurring within child care services. I have brought to the House's attention that more than 20 children have died in the HSE's care during the past six years. I knew more about them than the Minister of State did. I have sought details on the number of children in the health service's care who have died in the past ten years. Two or three months later and the HSE still cannot provide clarity on the matter. I have criticised the fact that the HSE is in breach of its statutory obligation to report on our child care services. At the beginning of June 2009, we received a report on child care services for the year ending 31 December 2007. Yet again, this report confirmed their dysfunction. Until now, however, the Minister of State has defended the way in which the system has worked. I welcome that he has changed his tune today, but it must be greater.

The HSE's 2007 child care report established that 23,268 reports on child abuse, neglect and child welfare concerns were made to the HSE, but initial assessments were undertaken in only 15,074 cases. No initial assessments were undertaken in 8,194 cases. The 2007 document showed widespread discrepancies between different areas in terms of the number of children determined to be at risk pursuant to reports. No detailed explanation was given for those discrepancies.

The Irish Examiner has done a public service today by publishing the details that helped the HSE to formulate the 2007 child care report. The newspaper confirmed that social workers in the child care services have claimed they are being overwhelmed. They cannot deal with the number of reports of children at risk or carry out proper assessments. A proper out-of-hours service is necessary. They lack the back-up they require in terms of children with intellectual disability. Let us not just assume that simply because of the Ryan commission report, which addresses and reveals the horrors of the past, that no horrors of today need to be remedied.

The important element of the motion is the Government's commitment to taking steps to ensure the uniform application of the child protection guidelines. I have sought their being made statutory. In today's motion, Fine Gael would have liked a Government commitment to giving them statutory effect. However, it could not be agreed. For the first time, however, the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, has acknowledged in the House a number of important factors. While he has finally acknowledged that making the guidelines statutory needs to be considered, he should go beyond this point and ensure they become statute.

There is an urgent need to take action to ensure the discrepancies across the HSE are addressed. The Minister of State described the difficulties he faces. He has finally accepted that he has no up to date information on how our child care system is operating. He is the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for children and youth affairs. We have a Minister of State who reports to this House on child care issues who does not know how the child care service is working and has no real time information about it. It has taken him a year to admit that is the situation.

He said the situation will be remedied. He makes reference to what he referred to as the health board legacy and alluded to the fact that different computer systems are working in different areas and in some areas there are no computer systems at all. This Government has been in office for 20 of the past 22 years. It has been in office consistently for the past 12 years. It is the same Government that, in 2005, put the HSE in place.

The HSE has been operating for four years and is the body that has an obligation to protect children. It is indefensible that systems were not put in place to ensure that the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews knew how the child care service was operating. It is indefensible that, as of today, we do not know how many reports have been made to social workers about children at risk and that information is gathering dust on shelves because the resources do not exist for assessments to be undertaken.

We do not know how many children have been damaged, brutalised or sexually assaulted, or whose welfare has been irrevocably affected by the failure of our current child care system. We do not know how many children of today will be the adults of the future and the survivors of our failures today.

There is a terrible lethargy on the part of the Government in addressing these issues. There has been a denial of the reality that our system is dysfunctional. There is a denial of the reality that there is a need to radically reform and change the way it is operating. I welcome the fact an identifiable person will be appointed to be in overall charge of our child care services, but there is a need for far more radical change.

We need to get away from the corporate structure that exists so we have an holistic and sensitised structure - if that is the best way of putting it - so that if a child is in trouble or there is a need for an out-of-hours service, one does not need to go up through three, four or five managerial levels to someone who has no training in dealing with child care issues, no social work qualification and does not know the child concerned, who will then make a decision as to what is in that child's best interests.

There is a need for radical change and reform. I welcome that the Minister of State is finally realising that to some extent, but it is an indictment of this Government that is had taken the publication of the Ryan commission report for this to be acknowledged. There is a need for other changes.

Regarding children who have died in care, we know reports have been made to Government that have not been published. We must shine the light on what is wrong with our current child care services so we make the corrections that are required. The Taoiseach referred to the Ryan commission shining the light on the grievous wrongs of the past. We must shine the light on what is happening today.

I have very little time left, but I will briefly refer to two matters. David Foley, a young man of 14 years of age, sought help, wished to be taken into care and died at the age of 17, while in the care of the State. I believe a report into this case was prepared by the HSE, which has not been published and has been suppressed. A young girl, Tracey Fay, who died at the age after a fatal drug overdose, was also supposed to be in the care of the State. She was shifted from one social worker to another and was in and out of an out-of-hours service. I understand a report containing 50 recommendations was prepared on this case. It has been suppressed but should be published.

The suppressed recommendations contained in the Monageer report should be published. We have a plethora of reports detailing what is wrong with our child care services. We do not need reports, rather we need action. The victims of yesterday are entitled to reparation, recognition and justice. The children of today are entitled to the protection of the State and to know that we genuinely cherish them and want to provide them with the protection to which they are entitled.

In the context of the victims of abuse, it was suggested to me that not simply a general apology, such as has been made by the Taoiseach and his predecessor, should be delivered. Where we know the individuals and their addresses, a letter should be sent to each individual survivor by the Taoiseach on behalf of the State. It should apologise for the manner in which they were treated, ignored and abused. This would show a degree of commitment and sincerity and confirm to them personally that the State will do everything it can in the future to try to facilitate them in coming to terms with their suffering and lead reasonable lives.

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