Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I join the Taoiseach in commending the women who have come through the awful ordeal that was visited on them as very small girls. I commend them on their bravery. I accept that the protection of our children is now a matter which looms large in public policy in a way that it did not ten or 15 years ago. However, there is no room for complacency. I recall very accurately that as we dealt with the Grace case, we discovered that there were still massive gaps and inadequacies in our child protection system, as well as a reluctance within parts of the HSE and other services to be held accountable when mistakes are made or systems failures identified.

I ask the Taoiseach to tell us more about the independent investigation that he says commenced in 2016. That is, of course, prior to an apology being made to the victims in question. Is this the independent investigation for which the legal representatives of the victims have called? Have the victims and their legal representatives had access to the terms of reference of the inquiry and will they have an opportunity to provide testimony to it? If the Taoiseach could answer those questions in as precise terms as possible, I would appreciate it.

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