Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday the Minister and his party colleagues launched their campaign for a "Yes" vote in the upcoming children's referendum. Like everyone else, I welcome this referendum and look forward to a day when the children of the State will be given the protection they deserve and when stories of abuse and neglect by families and the State will become a thing of the past. However, this week it seems that day is much further away than it was before.

Like other Members, I read with disgust and dismay the findings in Judge Reilly's report on St. Patrick's Institution of children being stripped with knives, bullied by staff members and being forcibly moved to isolation cells using head and arm lock control. This is barbaric behaviour and it would remind us of the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq, about which we heard so much about over the years, but it is happening on our own doorstep.

There are even questions for the Minister, Deputy Quinn. Basic record-keeping in regard to school attendance for young people in St. Patrick's is non-existent. This means those young people's lives will be restricted. They will not have had the chance improve themselves during their time in that institution and they will leave it at a distinct disadvantage. All this has being going on right under our noses.

I am aware that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, instructed the director general of the Prison Service to address these issues within the timeframe set by the inspector but I am very concerned as to whether it is quick enough and at how these abuses are only coming to the fore now. If the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and his Labour Party colleagues truly believe children should be seen and heard, they will act on this immediately. That makes me wonder how it is that the Minister, Deputy Shatter, received this report three and a half months ago but it has only come to light this week. Why did the Ombudsman for Children's concerns in regard to St. Patrick's Institution fall on deaf ear for two years?

The Minister's party leader has stated that this must be addressed but what everyone wants to know and what I would like to hear is when and how. The 2014 timeline for ending the detention in that prison of those aged under 18 must be brought forward. Will the Government do this and will it act for children who want to be seen and heard but who are prevented from doing so in the cruelest possible way?

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