Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not one bit reassured by the Taoiseach's answer. It was not a point in time. It did not finish in 2007. It took until 2011 for a second child, who had been regularly raped, to come forward. The first child's allegation was deemed credible and the second child's allegation was deemed credible.

I know the Taoiseach is a busy man. Yesterday's report from HIQA in relation to Sligo, Leitrim and west Cavan confirmed that there are ongoing issues in relation to child protection. Perhaps somebody could read the report for the Taoiseach and point out the facts, including that the safety plan issue is still a problem and the allocation of social workers is still a problem.

On the review itself, the system - the social workers and management - failed to comply with their statutory obligations at the time. They have failed to comply with their statutory obligations on a repeated basis. Nobody has considered talking to the children who were in that family before these courageous children came forward and made their complaints. Did it occur to anyone to consider the children who were there previously to see if they were subjected to the same abuse?

On the terms of reference, has it occurred to the Government to ask how could a report of this significance take so long? How could a referral be made in April 2016 and how is it that we are talking about it in May 2019 as a result of a leak to RTÉ? RTÉ deserves "congratulations" from us, if that is an appropriate word. It was RTÉ's programme that led to a referral in the first place, not Tusla.

Finally, the Taoiseach might look at Charleton and other HIQA reports which state that Tusla is incapable of holding a mirror up for reflection. Charleton also pointed out that criminal prosecution should never be used as an excuse when there is a failure in child protection.

See this speech in context