Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The line in a Rudyard Kipling poem is appropriate to the actions of the last couple of days: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you...". That is what we need right now - to keep our heads cool. We need a clear plan and a course of action to establish the tribunal of inquiry so that we can get to the truth. I think the truth is the very least that the McCabes deserve. It also needs to be a truth that we can have trust and faith in.

I do not know how Sergeant Maurice McCabe is still standing tall after the last number of years he had go through. I do not know how he has the strength and resilience he obviously has to keep fighting for justice. It just shows what a genuinely outstanding public servant actually looks like. We all owe him a very big debt. What Sergeant Maurice McCabe and his family now need - in fact what An Garda Síochána needs as a force - is a comprehensive inquiry in order that we will get to the truth.

The sole objective of the Government as a whole in regard to these allegations is to get the truth in the public domain for all of those involved. People are rightly shocked and angered at the revelations of the last couple of days. We are turning over stones and people do not like to see the ugly, murky side of what is underneath them. Let us be very clear that the turning over of those stones has not happened by accident. Over the last number of years, the Government and its predecessor took a number of positive steps to make the turning over of those stones happen. We established the independent Policing Authority to oversee the performance of An Garda Síochána. We strengthened GSOC and increased its powers. We passed a wide range of whistleblower legislation for the first time ever in this country. We published the Cook report, set up the Guerin inquiry, established the O'Higgins commission of investigation and just last month launched the new code of ethics for An Garda Síochána which was developed by the independent Policing Authority. All of these steps are designed to bring light to an area of Irish society which has been cloaked in shadow for many years. Now, we are about to establish a public tribunal to get to the bottom of the latest two protected disclosures and anything else the House sees fit to put into the terms of reference tomorrow. We also have something which has been overlooked this week in the major and chilling flaws in Tusla. We have instructed HIQA to undertake an independent statutory investigation under section 9 of the Health Act into how Tusla, an agency in which we are supposed to fundamentally have faith, manages child abuse allegations.

All of the above and the actions of the Government and its predecessor have been influenced by the Fine Gael way, by sincerity and, more particularly, our integrity. Sinn Féin mentioned earlier the Sinn Féin way. Let me be honest and reflect on the Sinn Féin way. Anybody who wants to know about how Sinn Féin treats child abuse victims need only ask my very good friend Maíria Cahill about how she has been vilified and been put through the kangaroo courts that reflect the Sinn Féin sense of justice. The persistent online harassment she has gone through for the last number of years is a shame on Sinn Féin. Anyone who wants to know about the Sinn Féin way regarding An Garda Síochána, our Defence Forces or prison officers need only ask the widows of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe, prison officer Brian Stack or Private Patrick Kelly. Sinn Féin does not do truth, integrity or sincerity. It is full of spin, rubbish and pure political games. That is all that is going on here today.

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