Dáil debates
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Seanad]: Report and Final Stages
5:00 am
Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
I share the view of my colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan in many respects. As I suggested on Committee Stage, we should move away from such words as "detention", "being detained", "detention orders" and "places of detention" and we should look more towards phrases such as "safety" and "security". This is why such wording as "secure care" and in this case "placed in secure care" is preferable to phraseology and language such as "detention", which has penal or custodial connotations rather than such terms as "safety", "security", "help", "assistance" and "care". It is important to move from language that might be described as both obsolete and outdated and, in many cases, unfair.
I heard what the Minister of State had to say on Committee Stage but I am not convinced by his arguments. I call on him once again to be mindful of the importance of language which stresses care, security, assistance, welfare and protection rather than orders and detention. I call on the Minister of State to consider my proposal. In the event that he does not accept my wording, I have no difficulty with the wording put forward by my colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan.
Catherine Mills
Posted on 2 Mar 2011 1:41 pm (Report this comment)
Yes, Charles. language is so important because of the energy vibration it carries.but the truth is children in so called safe care are 7 times more likely to be abused.
Children in corporate care are seen as commodities for business thus dehumanising the human children of Eire.
Just because the church indoctrinated us years ago that all children born of Eve- ill wombmen were meant to suffer for their sins does not mean that we have to obey these men any more. That barbaric thinking belongs in the past, but it is in our collective consciousness and needs to be addressed.We adults are here to learn from children, not the other way around. But Irish adults for the most part feel the need to CONTROL everyone they can and that is not freedom. if Russian children can build their own schools, set their own curriculum and be years ahead of their peers, surely we ought to be learning from this too.