Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I join Deputy O'Rourke in thanking all those who made presentations to the committee, both written and oral, and the committee's staff and legal advisers. The Deputy set out clearly the way in which we went about our deliberations. I welcomed the participation of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, during the brief period in which he was Minister of State at the Office of the Minister for Children. The current Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, and I have had several heated exchanges during our sessions. However, it is only fair to say, as Deputy O'Rourke noted, that he came to the meetings, he participated, he was involved with us as we teased out the problems and as we brought about what we believe are cross-party solutions in the best interests of children, which is the primary focus of the committee.

I refer to someone that Deputy O'Rourke omitted, I am sure, by accident, that is, Deputy Brian Lenihan, now the Minister for Finance. When he was the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Minster of State with responsibility for children were ex officio members of the committee. Despite all the pressures he was under as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform during this period, Deputy Lenihan participated actively in the work of the committee, he engaged in the exchanges and, as the Minister who originally launched the Bill in 2007, took a very genuine interest in what we were doing. I regret that the interest shown by Deputy Lenihan was not similarly reflected in the approach shown by the present Minster for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern. He popped into meetings on three or four occasions and I have no wish to do him down by suggesting it was too few meetings. Perhaps he was at two or three more than that, but the truth is he did not participate in a meaningful way in the discussions in the manner that Deputy Andrews has done, in fairness to him. I am not interested in scoring any silly political points. I agree with Deputy O'Rourke that this article is a unique opportunity to effect a major change in our Constitution on an agreed cross-party basis, which reflects today's values and priorities.

With every new revelation of things that have detrimentally impacted on the lives of children, whether clerical sexual abuse, institutional abuse or the failings of our social services, on a daily not only a weekly basis, the need to reset our constitutional priorities and ethos in a manner that will impact on Government and its agencies and the approach taken by them, especially towards children in trouble or at risk families who have difficulties and need supports such that their children can have good lives within those families, is highlighted. That is very important.

My concern with regard to the report thus far is what I describe as the deafening silence from Government. We started this process from the Opposition side of the House on the basis that the committee sought to bring about an agreement between the Oppositions parties and Government on an appropriate wording for a children's rights referendum and to change the Constitution. The committee evolved and this resulted in an agreement essentially between members of the committee. The Government is not yet committed to holding a referendum on the wording proposed by the committee.

I do not mean to put the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, down and I realise he holds the super-duper position as Minister of State who attends at Cabinet meetings, but he is not one of the 15 Ministers with constitutional recognition. Ultimately, he would acknowledge he is not the final decision maker in these things; rather, it is the Cabinet. There has been a deafening silence from all members of Cabinet to the production of this report. No Minister, whether from the Green Party, the Fianna Fáil party or Deputy Harney, who is the Minister for Health and Children and represents no party now but who has been in Cabinet for many years, has stated they agree with this report, they accept the recommendations or that they favour holding a referendum this year. That is the commitment following the work undertaken by everyone on the committee including members of Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, Sinn Féin and Fine Gael. We should get the required response not for our sake, but for the sake of the children. We must bring about a constitutional sea change. I call on the Cabinet to give to this issue the priority it deserves.

How many more scandals and problems must we have, with regard to the manner in which children have been badly treated, for us to give the same priority to the protection of children and children's rights as we have given to the disastrous economic issues that we have had to confront? I am not making a political point in the sense of trying to have a go at people for the sake of it, but this is also about politics. When people say to me that this is about children and that we should not politicise it, I do not buy it. The decisions we make, including whether to hold a referendum, to provide better children's services, to allow the HSE to continue to run dysfunctional child care and protection services or to take those away from the HSE, are political decisions. They are about making political judgments based on one's values and priorities, the way in which this society works and in which the State agencies function. These are all political decisions.

Having welcomed very much the involvement of Deputy Andrews in this committee, I deplore the conduct of the Green Party. Deputy Paul Gogarty's picture adorns the report but it came as a surprise to some members of the committee that he was a member at all. Deputy O'Rourke stated that we held 62 meetings. I understood we held 63, but I will certainly defer to her expertise on that matter.

See this speech in context