Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

I propose to share time with Deputy Buttimer. This is very important legislation and I welcome the priority given to it by the Minister for Justice and Equality. I specifically welcome the manner in which the Minister has framed the legislation. The Bill has been the subject of a regulatory impact analysis. The draft scheme of the legislation was discussed at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The hearings at the joint committee included oral presentations from One in Four, the rape crisis centre and the CARI Foundation, together with written presentations. It is most encouraging that the Bill includes provisions to take account of the issues raised by the joint committee during the course of its deliberations. The Minister chose to introduce the Bill in the Seanad last May and, having read the transcript of the initial debate on its content, this was a worthy exercise as the legislation moves through the relevant processes. We are often criticised for not introducing reforms. The way the Minister presented this Bill in the Oireachtas shows a different approach and will lead to better legislation.

The Bill criminalises the withholding of information on certain arrestable offences against children and vulnerable adults. It aims to protect children and vulnerable adults from serious offences including sexual offences. This Bill, together with the children first Bill and the national vetting bureau Bill, will strengthen child protective legislation.

The central point of the Bill is to place a duty on people - not just health professionals or others working with children - to report certain specified arrestable offences to the Garda Síochána. It has been broadly welcomed by a cross-section of organisations working with children. The external debate during the framing and initial presentation of the legislation wrongly centred exclusively on the seal of the confession. When we deal with this subject as law makers, there is the potential to miss more important core issues and nuances when the entire discussion zones in on a specific aspect of the proposed legislation. I am happy the Minister dealt with that specific issue in how he outlined the Bill.

Before the publication last week of the State's role in protecting children in its care, media attention and the general debate on child abuse focused on abuse by the clergy. National statistics from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, RCNI, show that nearly 80% of childhood sexual abuse victims were abused by someone known to them, such as immediate family members, relatives or family friends. Some 12% were abused by those in authority, such as teachers, coaches or priests. We have a shameful past in Ireland with regard to the abuse of children and, like the vast majority of Irish people, I am instinctively in favour of mandatory reporting. That is not to say this legislation will be a panacea.

I welcome the sections of the Bill dealing with vulnerable adults. In recent times shock revelations have emerged about abuse of the elderly in a number of nursing homes. Many victims of abuse are severely traumatised by the abuse. While prevention of abuse to others is important, it is also critically important that we do not criminalise victims. The Minister outlined the fact that this legislation closes a loophole in the Offences Against the State (Amendment) Act 1998, whereby it was deemed an offence to withhold information in respect of a serious criminal offence. However, that provision of the 1998 Act specifically excluded sexual offences. I understand the urgency of the 1998 Act following the Omagh atrocity. The offence of withholding information was effectively abolished in Irish law when the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours was abolished by section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1997.

A general duty to inform no longer existed in Irish law. Oireachtas debates from this time show an awareness that the abolition of this offence would mean it would no longer be a crime to fail to report child abuse. However, it appears from the debates in 1996 that it was expected that some form of mandatory reporting of child abuse would be put on a statutory footing in the near future. It has taken 16 years for this to happen, which is a terrible indictment of the Oireachtas.

However, this legislation is a step in the right direction. The Bills digest produced by the Oireachtas Library includes in its appendix recommendations from the report by the Garda Inspectorate entitled Responding to Child Sexual Abuse. These 29 recommendations offer a criminal offence perspective and neatly encompass the current shortcomings in the system and the difficulties that may arise in the future. If properly implemented, they will help to ensure better outcomes. This Bill and the Children First Bill will facilitate an enhanced appreciation by society at large of the deep problems of child abuse. These and other initiatives will allow us to begin to move away from our shameful past.

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