David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

The ombudsman states that we still do not have an independent child death review mechanism in Ireland. When children in the care of the State die there is no independent review of the case outside of the coroner process. That is what the ombudsman had to say last week. I say to the Minister of State opposite that this demands urgent action. We need to listen to the Ombudsman for Children, one of the most important offices established in this State. That office needs to be resourced and listened to as it is the ombudsman who is listening to children, which is what did not happen in the past. Had it happened, we might not be here today discussing this report.

I would like also to refer to an issue raised by Deputy Naughten, namely, the vaccine trials. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Martin, who was Minister for Health and Children at the time speaking on the issue in the Seanad stated: "We do not know whether your rights were protected all those years ago. We just do not know but we believe it is important for you and for the wider society to move Heaven and earth to find out and we want to do it in a forum which has the power to investigate, to compel witnesses and to publish its findings without fear or favour to ensure compensation is made, if that is required". The Minister stated that the Government did not know who was responsible for safeguarding the rights of children at the time. That process did not go ahead. I have been contacted by a number of people concerned about this. While I assume that the pharmaceutical companies paid money to trial the vaccines on the children in these institutions, as we do not have the full facts we do not know if that is the case. The children were used as guinea pigs for vaccine trials, the consent for which was not, most of the time, sought from or given by their parents, which is another abuse that needs to be investigated. The Government appears to have lost the will to investigate this issue further.

Very often, when children are vulnerable they drop out of school. Youth and out of school services is the Cinderella of this sector. These are the children who need help most. I implore the Government to put more resources into youth services and out of school youth services which is an area where one often comes across children who are vulnerable and who need help right now.

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