Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I thank Norah Gibbons for the report and its quality, and also for the fact that it did not take an age to produce it. It is a first for the Department. I also thank the Minister of State for the briefing he and his team gave us yesterday on a very difficult and sensitive case.

Most people assume that politicians are familiar with all aspects of law but we are not. It has been harrowing to read the details of exactly what happened. The report found that the pleadings of the children were ignored. The decision to publish the report was very brave on the part of the children and it was wise on the part of the judge to meet the children in an informal way. Although they were still angry and hurt, they displayed remarkable courage and resilience and we must be thankful for that. We can only hope and pray that the scars will heal.

We have seen it all before. We live in rural areas and we saw it in the Kilkenny incest case, the Kelly Fitzgerald case in Mayo and the McColgan case in Sligo. People are asking where people in areas such as child care or case workers or those who are working for institutions were. We need a debate on this area. Work cannot be done on the clock. Years ago people had a vocation for a job. I am not suggesting that what was done was wrong but one cannot have people in a position of responsibility if they do not have a vocation for the job.

Nobody in the country has been sacked and because of benchmarking over the past number of years everyone got an increase, regardless of whether they had done a good job. It has to stop because we are leaving vulnerable young children helpless as a result of a lack of care by the State. Child protection is not an enviable task at the best of times and it occupies a place in between trying to support families in their homes and taking the drastic step of taking children into care. On this occasion, the voices of the children, relatives and neighbours were not heard.

There has to be an investigation by the HSE. I wish the report had determined if somebody was culpable or responsible for a lack of duty and care. I hope that will be addressed by the HSE but the way we do business has let down the political system and the HSE. As I have said before, we cannot blame anybody else. We have to blame ourselves and make sure that this will never happen again.

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