Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I appreciate that. Is the Minister of State seriously suggesting, in the context of the issue he now has raised, that it was in the best interests of children generally in this State or in the interests of a functioning child care and protection service, that an eight-year old report should languish unpublished in his Department and on the shelves of the HSE for 12 months? It was a damning indictment of the complete failure of our child care services to provide for the protection of a child. Does the Minister of State seriously suggest that a mother who failed that child and who was reported in that report to have physically assaulted the child at the age of seven to the extent that two of the child's front teeth were removed, is entitled to exercise a veto in the public interest over the publication of that report? I will conclude by suggesting to the Minister of State that the public interest is that there should be transparency and accountability in our child care services to the maximum extent to ensure they truly protect children.

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