Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset I thank sincerely the Technical Group for allowing me some of its speaking time to contribute on the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Bill. This is an important Bill to come before the House. I listened to the various contributions made in this debate which were thoughtful, informative and important to air here.

I want to raise a number of issue. In dealing with human rights and equality we must examine all that is happening in our society. Our country has made great strides forward with regard to rights and equality, and rightly so, but a number of issues and difficulties remain. I welcome that the Minister is in the House to hear this contribution because over a continuous period and through his other role as a person of the legal profession, he will be aware on numerous occasions, including in recent weeks, judges have spoken out during cases about young people in particular coming before the courts who have mental health problems. To be blunt, they are being brought to the wrong place. We talk about equality and protection of people's rights, and I am delighted our country has made huge strides forward in dealing with people who have mental health issues. Gone are the days when people had virtually no treatment. Not too long ago the treatment people received was electric shock therapy. That was a derogation of people's human rights but young people with mental health problems should not be coming before the courts because they should be taken care of in some other way, and I would like to see the Minister work on that in conjunction with the Minister for Health, and especially the Minister with special responsibility for mental health issues. I rely on the Minister to examine that in a sincere way. He will be aware of a case two weeks ago where a judge who had a young person before him demanded that the Health Service Executive come before his court the following week, and it was similar to the issue I raise, to explain the reason the person was being brought before the courts. That is an important job to be undertaken and I would like the Minister to examine it.

Deputy Durkan raised the issue of bullying. There is no place in society for bulling, particularly bullying of our beautiful young people attending schools. Cyberbullying, bullying by means of mobile phones and all of that was never an issue in the past but it is a horrible situation for young people to have to put up with. We have seen the outcome of persistent and continued bullying, and it should not be tolerated in our society. Our principals and teachers do their level best to try to tackle this problem but the horrible aspect of it is that it is a hidden practice. In the past, if bullying was taking place in the classroom or in the schoolyard it was obvious because one could see it, but this is a hidden, sneaky way of getting at young people. I was glad to hear Deputy Durkan speaking on that issue earlier but a great deal of thought, work and effort must go into trying to solve this problem because I would not like it to continue for the beautiful young children who will start school in September in all their innocence. I do not want them to be subject to any type of bullying or abuse as they go through the school system.

A major problem in this country, which we should not have because our country is so small, is the trafficking of people.

Since becoming Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter has tried to tackle the gangs that traffic people into this country. Every effort must be made to put an absolute stop to this practice. There is no worse type of abuse of a human being than trafficking, providing ill-gotten gains for a criminal gang. I support the Minister in his fight against this awful practice. With a country our size, we should not have any human trafficking. It is different for larger countries with extensive borders which are difficult to fully police.

Wherever a person is from and whatever a person’s religion, whether they have one or not, he or she is entitled to be treated with the utmost of respect.

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