Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on children in general. I hope this type of debate will be an ongoing event in Parliament. It is a very good idea. There might not seem to be much interest in the matter but there is, and that interest is only fully realised every time there is a general report on child care or a diocesan report on clerical sex abuse when there is much exclamation and debate. It is important that we have such debates on an ongoing basis.

I very much welcome many of the matters to which the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, referred. I will return to those in a moment. Given that each speaker mentioned the referendum on the rights of the child it would be wrong of me not to so do. I have already expressed my views clearly in another forum which was extensively reported. I understand the report has gone to a co-ordinating committee in which the views of the various Departments will hold sway. That is very important. I am sure the opinions of Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, who is the official rapporteur to the Government, will also place great weight on the conclusions that will be reached and then we will have the input of the Attorney General.

The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children is now defunct. We signed ourselves out of existence when we signed the third report. That approach should be considered by many committees currently in operation in the Houses. Some committees are very good and give great value but others appear to be drifting aimlessly. Perhaps a system could be introduced whereby projects are adopted by committees and that they would have a task to complete. When the task is fulfilled it could be considered whether the committee would be encouraged to continue its work in some other sphere of activity within the original terms of reference according to which the committee was set up.

It would be helpful if the Minister of State, Deputy Barry Andrews, who sits at the Cabinet table, and who to all intents and purposes is the same as a full Cabinet Minister, would seek clarification that the referendum will go ahead and an approximation of when it will take place rather than an actual date. I accept it would not be possible to give a definite date. Much of the difficulty surrounding the date of the referendum is due to the fact that when anyone reports on it he or she links it with the three by-elections. That is wrong. If the referendum is of such overriding importance then it should be held on its own without any other business obtruding on it or taking from its importance. One could say the by-elections will only take place in Donegal, Dublin South and wherever the third one is-----

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