Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak briefly about this issue. When the Minister, Deputy Katherine Zappone, published the third interim report of the commission of investigation into the mother and baby homes in December last year, she made it quite clear that the Government had agreed to a request from the commission for an extension of one year to allow it to complete its fact-finding and information gathering process. The additional time will ensure the investigation can comprehensively address the wide range of public concerns referred to it. The Minister also announced that she would establish a collaborative forum to support former residents to develop solutions to issues of concern to them. That is also welcome. I must admit, however, that I was surprised to hear the Minister had felt it necessary to invite the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence to visit Ireland to assist with the project. By any yardstick, I do not share her high regard for the United Nations' so-called human rights institutions. In my experience, these institutions are riddled with moral hypocrisy and have a skewed view of what constitute human rights, as well as a history of gross interference with the sovereign rights of nations to control their own laws; nor do I see why the investigation cannot be overseen by the statutory authorities of the State. While it is an argument for another day, will the Minister explain why it is so important to involve the United Nations?

To return to the interim report, I note that it is proving difficult to find the records of some health authorities. It is not clear if they have been lost or destroyed, or if it is simply the case that no one knows where they are.

The report indicates that this may be due to the change in structures during the years of local authorities, boards of guardians, boards of public assistance to the health boards and then the HSE and, in some cases, the Child and Family Agency. The commission is continuing its efforts to find the material. I wish it well in that regard. We all need the clearest picture possible, including the families.

I am disturbed to read that while there are detailed death records available, there are significant gaps in the information on the burials of babies who died in a number of the institutions under investigation. The commission notes that while it is continuing to make inquiries about burials and burial records, it appears that it is an area in which it will be difficult to establish the full facts. That is something that must be continually borne in mind as we move forward as it will help us to avoid any summary rush to judgment in the clear absence of the facts.

This is also an opportune time to discuss some of the current failures in child protection. This will help us to realise that while the mother and baby homes issue is historical, the failure of the State to protect children is ongoing and very real. We can come into the House and pontificate and lash out about what happened in the dark days of the past, but we have very real failures occurring this very minute and hour all over the land. I want the Minister to acknowledge this and try to deal with the issue. Last year she gave me a breakdown of the number of children under the age of one year who had been in State care from 31 December 2011 to 2015. In 2011 the number was 136; in 2012, 148; in 2013, 136; in 2014, 139; and in 2015, 121. The numbers are truly astonishing. They show that we still have a desperate situation in the treatment of mothers and babies in the State. That is to say nothing of the number of children who died in State care in recent years, a matter I have raised previously with the Minister. However, it bears repeating that there were also 56,000 reports of child abuse in the past three years across all categories of neglect and abuse, which is a shocking figure. Will the Minister also be calling in the UN special rapporteur on truth to investigate these matters and, if not, why not? The figures provided for me by her Department show that there were 19,407 reports of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as neglect, received in 2013 alone, again a shocking figure in just one year. In 2014 the number of cases reported in the same categories was 18,676. In 2015, the number was 18,235. In total, in 2015 there were 43,596 referrals to Tusla under the Minister's Department, a staggering figure.

I refer to recent history and history in the making which is not good. It does not make good reading and it is not goof for the memory in the context of future investigations and tribunals. The statistics point to an alarming undercurrent of violence and neglect that is still being perpetrated on innocent children in our society. Will Minister show the same diligence in dealing with this matter that she is showing in dealing with the mother and baby scandals? We can write and talk about what happened in the dark days of the past and can blame the Catholic Church and everybody else. However, this is happening under our watch with all of the education that is now supposed to be available, with of all the equality legislation that is supposed to be in place and with all of the powers of investigation that Tusla and the HSE continue to have. I ask why is this happening. I hope the media will focus on it also because if we learn nothing from the past, we are capable of repeating the same problems and we are, in spite of all the millions being pumped into dealing with them. Two weeks ago we had a debate on child care. It is both shocking and staggering. I know of cases, about which I have been on to the Minister. The minute a person is onto Tusla, it is totally taboo and not possible to inquire. Tusla has a lot of questions to answer. I had it in my county and otherwise about the way it did and did not get involved, but we should have seen the mistakes. However, what did we do? We set up Tusla and hived off a huge number of staff. There is interference from the side and I am being distracted. The staff were just moved into other positions. There are bound to be teething problems, but in this instance, they were more than teething problems. They are continuing and serious. I meet gardaí every weekend in my constituency, as others do in their constituencies, if they were to be honest. They receive calls at 3.20 p.m. and 4.20 p.m. on a Friday evening. I am referring to calls about problem in families with children. Gardaí are told they are in charge and can deal with the problem over the weekend. That is not good enough. It is not fair to members of An Garda Síochána. They are busy and have to police a lot of areas, but this happens continually. Calls are landed on their desks shortly after lunch on a Friday because there are not enough social workers on duty. I am not knocking all social workers and all that they do, but there are lots of problems and I referred to the figures earlier. That is no way to treat a problem by handing it over to members of An Garda Síochána who much of the time are ill equipped and untrained to deal with it. To where will they bring children in question and their families? Will they bring them into the Garda station and try to find a foster home for them? I salute the foster carers that make their houses and homes available. However, there are lots of problems under the Minister's watch. It is important that we also bring in the United Nations special rapporteur to deal with this issue. I can tell the Minister that there will be investigations into what happened in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 under our watch, for which we will have to be accountable and come up with ideas. We cannot blame all religious institutions and whoever else we feel like blaming for what happened in bygone days when we were always told we were backward and this and that. We have all of the education we need and are still letting the same thing to happen right under our noses on an hourly basis.

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