Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

Nothing could prepare one for the horror that lies in the volumes of the Ryan report, which, in institution after institution, list appalling accounts of destroyed lives. A whole generation of children experienced some of the most inhumane and barbaric atrocities perpetrated against human beings in the last century. This report shames us all, our society and those who were in charge of it during the period in question. The litany of abuse detailed in the report brings shame on us all and on our society. We must commit ourselves to ensuring it can never be repeated.

I have spoken on a number of occasions in the past on the role and functions of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. I have spoken at length on the situation of those children who were in residential care during the years in question and have been ignored by the commission. Sadly, there has been no change in this regard.

There are two specific categories of children in residential care who remain in the shadows and the Government has sought resolutely to keep their experience out of the public domain. One group comprises those children in State residential institutions who were used as guinea pigs in vaccine trials without their consent. The Government has used the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse as a fig leaf to ensure their experience is swept under the carpet and that we never receive answers to the questions raised about the prevailing medical ethos of the 1960s and 1970s.

Separate sets of trials were carried out on children in State homes, the first from 1960 to 1961 and the second and third in the early 1970s, which continued until at least 1976. I understand there may have been a later trial but I do not have the details. The first trial which took place involved 58 infants in institutions around the State, between December 1960 and November 1961, the report of which was published in the British Medical Journal in 1962.

The institutions involved include Bessborough in County Cork, St. Peter's in Castlepollard, Dunboyne in County Meath, a mother and baby home, St. Patrick's, on the Navan Road in Dublin, St. Clare's in Stamullen in County Meath and Mount Carmel industrial school in Moate, County Westmeath, to name just a number. They were involved in the first clinical trial that took place.

The background to subsequent clinical trials which took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s was due to a great upsurge at the time in the number of severe adverse reactions in children who received the three-in-one DTP Trivax vaccine, manufactured by Wellcome. The 1973 vaccine trial involved an institution and a comparative control group outside that institution. A total of 116 children were involved, comprising 59 from the community and 57 from two children's homes in the Dublin area. The children in the community were given the normal commercial vaccine and those in care were used as guinea pigs for the new trial vaccine that was being studied at the time.

The trials beg a number of questions which remain unanswered. To date, however, no answers have been forthcoming. The Government referred the issue to the Laffoy commission but it was subsequently challenged in the courts. As a result, no worthwhile information has come into the public domain on what occurred in those institutions, even though State employed medical personnel were involved in administering the vaccine trials. We are now told that there is a threat hanging over whatever records are available and were made available to the commission and that they might be destroyed. The Government, and numerous previous Governments, have turned their back on those children. Those who were used as guinea pigs have not received answers on why they were used, why consent was not sought, what type of concoction was administered and for how long that went on in State institutions.

The other group of children to which I wish to refer is one that is currently in the State's care. I refer to children who arrived here from outside the European Union. A shocking 23 unaccompanied children have gone missing from State care since 1 January 2009. Twenty of those children are still missing. It is a gross dereliction of duty by the Government and the State that has resulted in those children evaporating into thin air. Since 2000, some 486 children put into Health Service Executive accommodation were placed in care by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Garda Síochána. To date, 25 of those vulnerable children remain missing, yet the Government has failed to put measures in place to protect other such children. It is clear that some of those young children have been coerced or enticed from State care into lives of depravity and prostitution. There is strong evidence to suggest that HSE hostels are little more than grooming grounds for those seeking to prey on vulnerable children.

That is a child abuse scandal of tomorrow and clearly shows that nothing has been learned from the scandals of the past or from the litany of abuse outlined in the Ryan report. The Ryan report frightens us to the core. We must ensure that such abuse never happens again. We do not need any more words, we need action. The Government must act immediately to end the practice of placing children in hostels by the authorities of the State without proper care, supervision and standards. The lack of same in the past and the dereliction of duty by those working on behalf of the State allowed the exploitation and abuse of children in the past. We must ensure that does not happen in the future.

Joy Imifidon is one such child. She is a 17-year old Nigerian girl who the Garda picked up in a brothel in County Kilkenny last summer. She came before the courts last July and was charged with failing to produce a valid passport or other form of identification. Detective Garda Liam Maher told the court: "We are worried that she may be a minor and a victim of human trafficking." That was endorsed by Judge William Harnett who stated: "This is a young person who is very much at risk. I am not letting her out of custody while she may still be at risk and unless she has some chance of finding a safe place." She was remanded in custody to Mountjoy Prison. She came before Carlow District Court on 15 August and was placed in the care of the HSE on a 28-day interim care order. She subsequently disappeared from care and, to date, has not even appeared on the Garda's missing children's website. She is just one example of those children who have been found in vulnerable situations and placed in care by the State who have subsequently disappeared from that care, only to be exploited again.

See this speech in context