Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I am pleased that the Government and Deputies on all sides of the House have made it clear in recent weeks and months that there is an urgent need to do something about this issue. In light of the horrific revelations that have emanated from the Ferns, Ryan, Murphy and Cloyne reports in recent years - and most recently the report on the deaths of children who were in contact with the social services - it is long overdue for a way of protecting children from such horrors and abuses to be put in place. This Bill, which compels people to report arrestable offences to the Garda Síochána, is to be welcomed in that context. Essentially, it will criminalise the withholding of information on offences that have been committed against children or vulnerable people. While that is to be welcomed, we need to do a little more than simply making it a crime not to report knowledge or suspicion of such offences. There needs to be a link between our efforts in this regard and the whole question of the welfare of the child. The HSE website states that a person who is aware of a case of child abuse or neglect needs to report it to the HSE's child and family services. If this Bill is passed, will such a person be required to make that report to the Garda Síochána? Such a report would not be enough because it would focus on penalising the offender without doing anything to uphold the obligation on the social services of the State to take action to protect the child in question.

It is clear that offenders need to be reported but the stated aim of this Bill is to protect children and vulnerable adults from serious offences. The reporting of perpetrators really only does half of that job. Where is the Children First Bill? The initial Children First guidelines were published in 1999. We need legislation to be passed to ensure the very good recommendations in Children First are put on a statutory footing. That should lead to the real implementation of the Children First guidelines. It is crucial that our efforts to protect children have this sort of legislative back-up. The big question is what will be done when a problem is reported. How will children or vulnerable people who are at risk, or who are victims of abuse be assisted? If resources are not available to offer real support to vulnerable or abused children, all the legislation in the world will not really solve the problem. That brings us to the issue of cutbacks in front line services like social work, psychiatry and psychological assessment. All sorts of cuts are affecting the provision of such services. In that context, it is important to note what the Children First guidelines have to say on the issue of neglect:

Neglect can be defined in terms of an omission, where the child suffers significant harm or impairment of development by being deprived of food, clothing, warmth, hygiene, intellectual stimulation, supervision and safety, attachment to and affection from adults, and/or medical care.

Carers, family members and even individuals can be guilty of neglect. Surely, by that definition, this Government is guilty of such neglect. The imposing of caps on special needs assistants, their removal from many schools throughout the country, leaving some of our most vulnerable without the necessary support, is surely an instance of neglect, whereby the State should be-----

See this speech in context