Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I approach the debate with the desire and need to tread carefully and sensitively. The debate is about abuse at certain institutions but all Members present should be aware that if the number of people who have been sexually abused is one in four, then there are at least 40 survivors in this Dáil, 15 in the Seanad and at least 200 among the Oireachtas staff and media who work in Leinster House. Child sexual abuse is a disgusting and abhorrent thing but is not a rare thing by any measure.

My heart goes out to all of them, especially to the men who are coming forward now and who in the past were ignored, disbelieved or sent for psychiatric evaluation. My heart goes out, too, to all those who have chosen not to come forward and who will never do so. Some live with the story of what happened to them leaking out of them in all kinds of ways - we spoke about alcoholism. Others are doing the excruciating work of therapy privately or on their own terms. Still more have reached an accommodation with what was done to them and have been able to recover. The people who are coming forward now are just the barest tip of the iceberg.

I spoke to someone in north Kildare this week who was abused in their teens. This person told me how, unexpectedly, they find these current stories very triggering. The Minister can be sure that this constituent is not the only one feeling like this when it comes up. They are doing therapeutic work that will probably go on for a long time, and they are doing so privately. This person told me that it is not just young ears that need to be protected, as the radio warnings go; it is also the old ears of people who were young when they were assailed. I was not shocked, because who can be shocked now? However, this person is so solid and capable that I was surprised. Then, given how there could be 40 of us in this Chamber, why should I be surprised? We, therefore, need to be careful about how we talk and to whom we talk. We never know the terror or sorrow another person might be carrying, including a sizeable proportion of our colleagues.

As legislators, we have a particular duty to recognise that while today we are rightly and necessarily scrutinising abuse at certain institutions, it does not let us off the hook. Our huge task is to keep examining abuse in broader society and safeguard this to prevent it happening to new people.

We know that most child sexual abuse happens within the trusted family. There are many mammies and daddies and uncles and aunts - we saw a case just this week - who are relieved that political and media attention is falling away from them and their homes and who are now on the prowl.

We also need to face up to how many teens are abusing each other and children younger than them.

The 2009 annual report of the committee appointed to monitor the effectiveness of the Garda diversion programme found that out of 74 sexual offences, including 17 rapes and 40 sexual assaults, many were committed by under 18-year-olds. What is the number now in 2022? I dread to think.

The task we undertake today in addressing the issues of Blackrock College and elsewhere does not lessen or relieve us of our broader task of protecting our children. What would be the point in weeping with the victims and being outraged at the church unless we take our work as legislators as seriously as possible on an issue that can break a young life and damage it forever. I feel for the men who are coming out now in our still macho society. I say to them and to people in my constituency - those I have spoken to and those I have not spoken to but have had contact with - and especially our children that while these stories come and go in the media, their pain endures.

That is why our response must be victim-led. They must have full Garda and Tusla investigations because in their excruciating pain and often broken lives, the victims know what to do. We will be adding insult to serious injury if we treat them like the Women of Honour, who were treated with no honour at all. Their story is not just a headline or spectacle. It is not just a segment on a radio show or a debate in the Dáil but something they lived.

To the people who have come forward, the people who are dead and the people who cannot bring themselves to speak out, I say it is okay. We are a society and sometimes it is our turn to lead out and sometimes it is our turn to lean on. We in the Oireachtas, as legislators, should be here for all of them.

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