Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

-----on the previous occasion when we addressed the issue there was not a Green Party Minister, neither a Minister of State nor a Minister, in the House. All we heard on the issue was the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley on the publication of the Murphy commission report, feeling the need to get to his name in The Irish Times, announcing some sort of commitment to an inchoate, unspecified constitutional amendment on children's rights. The Minister of State, Deputy White did not add any substance to our knowledge of where the Greens stand on the issue. At least the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews contributed in the committee. I do not wish to be unfairly hard on him. He made a constructive contribution to the debate that took place in the committee, unlike any contribution that came from the Greens.

I am very conscious, Sir, that I have two colleagues who wish to contribute to the debate. I conclude by saying that I deeply regret that it seems that this House is tomorrow evening going to divide on this issue. I find it extraordinary that the Government cannot even commit itself to saying it will hold a children's rights referendum in 2010. Any consultative process that needs to be undertaken at governmental level could well be completed if we were told the referendum would happen at the end of October 2010. There is more than enough time. It only took from March of last year to September of last year for the NAMA legislation to be published and debated in this House. This issue has been teased out to a far greater extent in committee than that legislation ever was teased out.

I am not impressed, and I do not believe people outside this House are impressed, by the lip service being paid to this issue by the Government and to the damning report of the Ombudsman for Children, which replicated a report kept secret by the HSE. I suspect it was not fully brought to the attention of the Minister by PA Consulting in October 2009. It was commissioned by the HSE and it equally set out the dysfunctional nature of the child care and protection service.

We have a Government that talks about the issue. The Government should hang its head in shame, as children are dying under the care of the State, the Government is prevaricating on the holding of a very basic referendum to extend constitutional protection to children and to change the ethos that would apply both within Departments and State agencies in taking the action necessary to provide to children the protection to which they are entitled.

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