Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was deeply shocked to hear the harrowing allegations about children who were sexually abused in Blackrock College from the 1960s to the 1980s. I want to commend all those who have come forward on their bravery. It takes incredible bravery for people to relive such traumatic events in their lives, and in particular to do so in the public domain. Their bravery is important not only in the context of achieving a criminal conviction against those who committed these offences, but also in terms of encouraging others to come forward because once one person comes forward, it makes it a tiny bit easier for the next person to do so. That bravery needs to be acknowledged.

I would like to speak to the House about the legislative measures and policies in place to keep children safe. Over the past 25 years, significant progress has been made by successive governments to strengthen provisions to protect children in Ireland. This programme of reform was embarked on partly to address past failings, but also to achieve better outcomes in the delivery of services to children and their families. This reform programme began with the establishment of a dedicated Department of Children and Youth Affairs. It was followed by the establishment of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, which as we know is a dedicated State agency responsible for supporting and promoting the development, welfare and protection of children.

Tusla is aided in its child protection role by the Children First Act 2015, which provides for a number of key child protection measures, including raising awareness of child abuse and neglect, providing for the reporting and management of child protection concerns, and improving child protection arrangements in organisations providing services to children.

The obligations in the Act are intended to ensure that children at risk of harm are brought to Tusla's attention without delay. The Act commenced in December 2017 and it put core elements of the Children First national guidelines on a statutory footing. The guidance sets out definitions of abuse and signs for its recognition, and explains how reasonable concerns about child abuse and neglect should be brought by the general public and professionals to Tusla. It also sets out safeguarding best practice to assist any organisation providing services to children and young people to create a safe environment. The guidelines have been in place since 1999 and were fully revised and published in late 2017 to include reference to the provisions of the Act.

The first key element of the Children First Act was the introduction of mandatory reporting of child protection concerns by certain key professionals. Such mandated persons are people who have contact with children or families and who, because of their qualifications, training or employment role, are in a key position to help to protect children from harm.

Such mandated persons are people who have contact with children or families and who, because of their qualifications, training or employment roles, are in key positions to help to protect children from harm. They have a legal obligation to report to Tusla child protection concerns at or above a defined threshold. Since commencement of the Children First Act and up until last December, Tusla had received more than 56,000 mandated reports, with the highest number of mandated reports being received from An Garda Síochána at almost 20,000 followed by teachers at almost 10,000.

The second key element is that organisations classed as providers of relevant services under the Children First Act are required to keep children safe from harm while the children are availing of their services, to carry out risk assessments and to develop child safeguarding statements setting out the procedures in place to manage any risk identified. The types of organisation and service to which these obligations apply include early learning and childcare providers, schools and any work or activity involving the provision of recreational, social or physical activities to children. The service provider is obliged to provide a copy of the child safeguarding statement on request to Tusla, a parent or guardian of a child availing of the service, or requesting members of the public. Tulsa has established a child safeguarding statement compliance unit to support the implementation of this provision.

The third key element of the Children First Act was to place the Children First interdepartmental implementation group, CFIDIG, on a statutory footing. Each Department, as well as Tusla, the HSE and the Garda, is represented on this group. The CFIDIG is a high-level, cross-sectoral group with specific statutory functions relating to monitoring and promoting compliance by Departments with their obligations under the Act. These obligations include the requirement on each Department to prepare a sectoral implementation plan outlining the measures in place or planned to ensure compliance with Children First legislation and guidance. These plans apply not only to that Department, but also to any organisation providing a relevant service to children and receiving funding from the Department in that regard.

Apart from the Children First Act, a number of other policy and legislative improvements have been made to child protection standards in recent years. These include the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012, the related 2016 regulations and the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012, all of which fall under the remit of the Minister for Justice. The latter Act requires that any person who has information about a serious offence against a child that may result in charges or a prosecution must report this to the Garda. Failure to do so is a criminal offence under that legislation.

Implementation of the Barnahus model in Ireland is a significant initiative to improve services to children and families affected by sexual abuse. The aim of the model is to provide a timely assessment service to victims of sexual abuse and to reduce as far as possible the potential for retraumatisation by offering all services in one child-friendly location. The first Barnahus is operational in Galway city and a further two sites are under development in Dublin in the east and in Cork in the south. To support this, my Department chairs the interdepartmental group overseeing the model's implementation. This group brings together representatives from the Departments of Justice and Health, the Garda, the HSE, Children's Health Ireland and Tusla. I recently had the opportunity to visit the Barnahus in Galway and I was very impressed by the dedication of its staff and the model's insightfulness towards young people who had undergone the most traumatic experience of their lives. The model allows services such as Garda interviews and medical checks to be provided to them in one location.

Notwithstanding the significant improvements that have been made in our legislation, guidance and child protection systems, we cannot afford to become complacent when it comes to child safeguarding. Nor can we assume that it is the sole responsibility of mandated persons or experts. It is everyone's responsibility to protect children and young people and to do our best to keep them safe. Tusla is available to support anyone with child protection concerns as to how best to deal with those concerns. Working together in the interests of children is the best way to keep children safe.

I thank the Minister, Deputy Foley, for leading the Government's response in addressing the allegations that have emerged from Blackrock. I recognise the great bravery of the survivors who have come forward, spoken publicly and sought to secure justice, and I hope they have opened the way for others to do so.

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