Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin is supporting the motion and we welcome the fact that it is being brought forward. I welcome the people in the Public Gallery and commend them on their courage. It is disgraceful that they must come here and have their stories told like this. This should not happen. They should be getting all the supports along with every other victim of child sexual abuse. It should not even be up for question and I do not know how they cope with this on a daily basis. I find this subject very difficult, even listening to the material quoted by Deputy Quinlivan. I do not know how many anybody could listen to that and not do everything in their power to help people in that situation.

It is really far-reaching and quite disgraceful on the part of the Government to say that it did not force these children to go to school or that it did not send these children to school. Every child is expected to go to school. We still have the system whereby if a child misses 21 days, the State will be down on him or her like a ton of bricks. It is ridiculous to say they were not forced to attend these schools.

I thank and commend Deputy Quinlivan who has been taken a huge personal interest and done a huge amount of work in the area. I commend him on his efforts. As we are aware, much of this comes on the back of the bravery of Louise O'Keeffe who was forced to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. The Irish Government now says that the Louise O'Keeffe case and the entitlement to redress only applies to people abused by someone who had a prior complaint against them. This is completely unfair. These men were abused as children by someone in a position of power and are now being punished for not being capable of speaking up at that time, a time when the Catholic Church was the ultimate power in this country and when they were just children. Let us not forget that.

We know from the Ryan report that the State was aware of the sexual abuse of children in school in the 1940s but did nothing about it until it was forced to in the 1990s. As survivor Thomas Hogan said in thejournal.ierecently, "I can't recall very much about being seven, but I can recall the fear of that and I can recall the anger of it, not being able to say or do anything about it." These children could not speak up. This was not a choice on their part and to say that a prior complaint needs to have been made is not only insulting to them but belittles the suffering they experienced. I find that particularly difficult. Perhaps it is because my son turned seven last week but just thinking about the situation, what these children went through and what they are now being forced to go through as adults is nothing short of disgraceful.

The Government claims the floodgates will open but these are very specific cases and there is nowhere near enough people for floodgates to open. To be honest, if it is a case of floodgates opening, let them open. Anybody who has been abused at the hands of this State should be given whatever support and counselling services they need. Some Fianna Fáil Deputies talked about the effect on relationships, families and every single part of a person's life. It does not matter whether the floodgates open because people need support and it is not good enough that we come in time and again, apologise and say the stuff that happened was disgraceful. We are standing over it today because we will not give adequate support to these victims and are forcing them not only to relive it but to come up and tell their stories publicly. I find the whole thing disgusting.

The State has never taken responsibility for this abuse. Thomas Hogan has stated that if, at the time his abuser, Seán Drummond, was convicted, the State had come out and said it did not do its job at the time and was sorry, that would nearly have been enough. The Government did no such thing and has instead fought victims tooth and nail to deny any culpability. Redress is owed to these men and we welcome this motion which it is hoped will ensure this is what they get.

John Allen has been mentioned on a number of occasions tonight. This quote from him sums up the situation. He said that, "Instead of standing next to me, the Government is standing opposed to me. It's morally wrong." It is not too late. We have not voted on this. It is not too late to withdraw the Government amendment and it is not too late to support the motion and ensure everything is done to address the situation and that all of these people get the support they need. That is the least we can do and that is the least they deserve. I am sure most Deputies will be supporting this but I appeal again to the Government to withdraw its amendment and to do everything in its power, given that it is in power, to ensure these men and all victims of child sexual abuse are looked after. It is about time we started dealing properly with our horrific history. We seem to be doing it in piecemeal amounts. It takes a huge amount of public pressure and protest for things to change. We need to look at these situations, deal with them and ensure that people are given every support. It is the least we owe them.

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