Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I will be responding in the context of the reports of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children.

The report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation documents the litany of abuses perpetrated by clergy operating under the aegis of the Dublin Archdiocese. The HSE is finalising its audits of other dioceses. The purpose of the audits is to ensure that the HSE is fully aware of all cases of clerical child sex abuse known to the church, including the whereabouts of any alleged perpetrators. Pending receipt of a report from the HSE on the results of these audits, the Government has reserved its position on the option of further diocesan investigations, along the lines of the Murphy commission.

While the commission's report does not include specific recommendations on the rights of children, it is important, in light of the report, to establish whether any further actions are required to strengthen child protection policies and practices generally.

The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, which was established in November 2007, has produced two interim reports to date. One deals with the exchange of so called soft information and the other with a proposal to give legal authority to create offences of absolute or strict liability in respect of sexual offences against, or in connection with, children. The joint committee is now concentrating on family law issues arising in respect of proposed changes to the Constitution dealing with, among other things, the rights of children. A draft final report is currently being considered by the committee and its deadline for reporting back to the Oireachtas is 16 December 2009. The report will be submitted to Government for its consideration. In the meantime, my office, in co-operation with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, has started work on preparing heads of a Bill to deal with the issue of soft information.

A revised edition of the Children First guidelines will be published shortly by my office and will be promulgated throughout the public service. Standardised processes for dealing with cases of child welfare and protection will be introduced by the HSE, along with a national child care information system. This will help ensure that all information relating to an individual case is readily available to HSE professionals and that all contacts can be traced.

I am committed to making whatever changes are necessary in legislation, policy or practice to provide the best possible protection for children.

See this speech in context