Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is difficult to stand here on International Women's Day to speak about such a topic. I welcome the debate, if the word "welcome" is appropriate when the circumstances are so horrific. I cannot agree to the motion as tabled, although I acknowledge there is a need for an inquiry. The amendments tabled by Deputies Clare Daly and Wallace are reasonable and reflect the need for a proper investigation if we are seriously interested in learning from this scandal. However, our ability to learn to date has been very limited, and the common theme in protection is the protection of institutions at all costs. To highlight what I am saying, let me start with the 1993 Kilkenny incest report by Mrs. Justice McGuinness, who only two weeks ago spoke out again about a lack of resources. The report was presented by Deputy Brendan Howlin, who was Minister at the time. He stated everybody was horrified by the report. Everyone expressed their outrage and horror and all of the other emotions being expressed now about the Grace case and the other children who are not being covered by the inquiry. The then Minister also stated it was heartening to read the investigation team had concluded that an early diagnosis of such abuse would be much more likely. That was in 1993. Following this, in 1996, we had the report from Kelly Fitzgerald case, which made a number of recommendations. Two years later we had the west of Ireland farmer case. A year later we had the Monageer report. In 2010 we had the Roscommon child care case. All of these reports made major recommendations. In the Roscommon case of 2010, Judge Reynolds stated the children had been utterly failed by everybody around them. Conal Devine, in 2012, and Resilience Ireland, in 2015, made approximately 50 recommendations amounting with regard to the Grace case. The Minister of State is present today but he has not told us which of these recommendations have been implemented, which I would have thought is a basic prerequisite to having trust in the system. We are looking at terms of inquiry that will exclude people and that will push the issue down the road. What we have with all of these is an utter failure to learn and I have a sense of wash, rinse and repeat.

It might be difficult to listen to this but these are major reports from which successive Governments have utterly refused to learn. There would be no need for inquiries if we acted on the recommendations of report after report. The most basic requisite for the Minister of State today is to tell us what recommendations have been implemented and which ones have not been implemented. The research on the Department's website, which examines all of the reports I have mentioned, states some of the recommendations have been implemented and some have not. Very often, the way recommendations are written in reports is not conducive to clarity and carrying them out. We are back here today looking at a situation where, simply, mistruths have been repeatedly told and the institution has protected itself at all costs, in this situation at the cost of Grace and other children.

Sometimes in the Dáil it is difficult to keep going, given the political games being played. Today is International Women's Day and I am standing here speaking about a young woman called Grace who has been utterly neglected. Moreover, so have other children and there is no report before Members to tell them whether the recommendations of the two previous reports prior to the one commissioned in November have been implemented. By my reckoning, more than €500,000 has been paid to private consultants to examine our ill system and an institution which cannot provide the service it is statutorily obliged to provide. Will the Minister of State examine the amendments tabled if he is seriously interested in learning from this and from the other reports? What review of foster care in each county throughout the country has been carried out? In a previous life I was fully aware of difficulties in various foster homes, including a lack of monitoring and a lack of inspection. Will the Minister of State confirm to me the status of the review of all foster homes?

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