Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Ferns report in 2005, the national review of compliance with the Children First child protection guidelines in July 2008 and the Ryan commission report all detail the inadequacies of our child care laws and services. In July last, the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, published an implementation plan to address many of the inadequacies documented. While much of what is contained in the plan is praiseworthy, the problem is that the legislation required is not being prioritised and the inadequacies in our child protection services are not being addressed quickly enough. Children who deserve better continue to be at risk.

The Government must immediately prioritise the legislation required to put our child protection guidelines on a statutory footing. There is no reason such legislation could not be enacted and in force by next Easter. The Minister's promise to have it drafted by December 2010 and operational in 2012 is totally unsatisfactory. The Government should immediately prioritise the long-promised legislation for the use of soft information in child protection to which the Minister of State referred. It was first called for in the Ferns report in 2005. The Minister of State omitted to mention that in September 2008 the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children recommended the legislation be published by December 2008. The Government's promise that heads of a Bill will be prepared by the end of this year means that there is no possibility of such legislation being enacted and coming into force before 2011.

Scandalously, the Murphy commission report reveals that inter-agency meetings between church authorities, the Garda and HSE to address issues of clerical abuse of children as recommended by the Ferns report were blocked by the HSE and never occurred because of the absence of legislation on soft information.

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