Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have consistently raised with the Taoiseach the disconnect between rhetoric and reality and between aspiration and delivery. Nowhere are they to be seen more than in the damning report issued yesterday by Professor Geoffrey Shannon, special rapporteur to the Government on child protection. It is a report that calls into question the commitment of the Government to fulfil its constitutional obligations in the protection of children.

The Taoiseach will recall that in 2012 the Government held a referendum on the protection of children's rights, whereby the State recognises and affirms "the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, protect and vindicate those rights". However, yesterday's report shows that the State has not vindicated the rights of the most vulnerable children in society. Professor Shannon calls it a wake up call. It is a damning indictment of how we go about trying to protect vulnerable children. He analysed over 5,400 cases over eight years and said they revealed many unpalatable truths about our society. He also said: "Children are treated like human trash in some of these cases." He found failures in the PULSE, police using leading systems effectively, system, a lack of child protection training for gardaí, poor and limited inter-agency co-operation and co-ordination and repeat removals of children. In other words, children in vulnerable situations were removed by gardaí under section 12, only to end up back in the same vulnerable setting shortly afterwards. The complete absence of an out-of-hours social work service is highlighted in the report and Professor Shannon says there is also a troubling gap in how children with behavioural difficulties are treated by the system. This, in many ways, represents a damning indictment of the Government's performance since the enactment of the change to the Constitution in 2012. That amendment was all about protecting the children of the nation, particularly the most weak and vulnerable. Why is there no comprehensive out-of-hours social work service? What does the Government intend to do about this? Why is there so little emphasis in the Garda Training College in Templemore on child protection training as a core part of the training programme? This is something that emerged strongly from the audit. Why is that so? There is a need to fundamentally change our culture in how we protect vulnerable children in the community.

See this speech in context