Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste advised us this morning that we cannot jump to conclusions in respect of these horrendous cases and I agree. That said, the only conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence presented is that racial profiling occurred and these children were taken from their parents for one reason only - they were Roma and did not look like their parents. I sincerely believe that if they had been the adopted Vietnamese children of white parents, there is no way this would have happened. Both the Minister on the radio this morning and the Tánaiste have attempted to downplay the seriousness of what has happened here on the basis of the failure of the State to act in previous cases of concern regarding child welfare. It is clear that the State did fail previously and in other instances behaved in an over-the-top manner but the reality is that procedures have been put in place to deal with precisely these scenarios. In this case, the procedures were not followed. All the procedures say that the children should remain with their parents except in very exceptional circumstances but in this case, the last resort became the first option. This has been and will be deeply traumatic for the children and parents involved. An Irish pensioner who tearfully contacted my office this morning had been taken into care decades ago and still lives with that trauma.

Will the Minister give an unreserved apology to the families at the heart of this debacle? Will he commit to an independent investigation into what happened? Can he comment on the coincidence that his Department has been criticised by the EU for its lack of progress on Roma and Traveller integration? Is it not in some way culpable?

Is there a case to answer about the media frenzy and irresponsible journalism that took place? It has been clear for some time that elements in the Garda at senior level are feeding their pet poodles in the media. Will the Minister investigate this and take action in that regard? Finally and critically, is he aware that information on the records of Traveller children, some of whom are as young as 16 days old, are being input and updated on the PULSE system and what is he going to do about that type of racial profiling?

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