Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy McDonald has raised three issues. First, she asked me for a categoric statement in respect of discrimination against any family or child on the basis of ethnic or other background. Let us be clear - all children and families in this country, irrespective of ethnic, religious and other backgrounds, enjoy the same rights. There can be no discrimination, targeting or special treatment. Irrespective of backgrounds, people have the right to be treated equally. This is clearly the position of the Government as well as every Member who sits in this House.

The second issue is that of reporting. Deputy McDonald is right in that this country has had a culture of not reporting the abuse of children. In some cases, people who were aware of child abuse did not report it for a long time. Happily, we are seeing an end to that culture.

We need and have a child protection regime that puts children and their safety first, but we must also ensure the way in which this regime is delivered, managed and operated is proportionate and sensitive. Allegations or information given to the Garda or authorities should be examined. Only in cases of a serious and immediate threat or risk to the safety or health of a child should that child be removed from a family. Other options must be explored.

As to the reports requested by the Ministers, Deputies Shatter and Fitzgerald, the Garda Commissioner's will be on the handling of the situation by the Garda and the HSE's will be on how it and its child protection workers handled the situation. The intention is that these two reports will go to the children's Ombudsman. We should then wait for her recommendations on what further steps might need to be taken. First, however, we need to establish what happened and get the initial reports. We will then hear the recommendations of the children's Ombudsman, who is independent and in whom I and Deputies have considerable confidence.

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