Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, for coming in. I know we have discussed this issue. I would like to welcome Mick Finnegan into the Gallery. Mick has been a tireless advocate for survivors of sexual abuse in St. John Ambulance Ireland and he has been hugely affected, like all survivors have been. He has devoted his life to getting some sort of answers and consequences for those who abused him and many others. I would like to acknowledge Mick's presence here.

I recently saw some script from Joe Mooney, who said:

It is to Ireland's shame that survivors must exhaust themselves from pleading to be heard. It still appears child protection is everybody's business until it is not.

That resonated with me, and I think it resonates with most people and certainly survivors. I have to ask, does the Minister feel that serious reforms have been made? There does not appear to be any. Nothing is happening, and everything seems to be quiet. Survivors are still waiting for answers. There are no consequences for those who carried out these disgusting acts. Six months have passed now and the board of St. John Ambulance Ireland remains largely the same. Judge Dr. Geoffrey Shannon's recommendations still have not been implemented. The two long-standing board members who were meant to resign still have not. One left, and the other is now the interim chair. That seems like another kick in the teeth for survivors.

I was talking to Mick about this last week, and we were saying there seems to be a disparity within our society regarding people from socio-economically deprived and disadvantaged areas in that they are not worthy of the same support from the State, despite crying out and asking for help. There is that real sense, when survivors start looking at other examples of abuse and how it was treated, that they feel if they were from a different class, they would be treated differently. It is an important thing, and it is important we hear those concerns of survivors.

All survivors want is real accountability, and every member that was a senior officer on the board to step down and let the good, honest and hard-working volunteers take over, and let them continue to do the good work that the organisation has done in this country for well over 100 years. Only then will survivors accept and acknowledge that accountability has taken place. The survivors and I do not feel that there has been any accountability. There have been no consequences for the perpetrators, the organisation and the culture within that organisation. Despite the recent resignation, there remains people on the board of St. John Ambulance Ireland who were not only aware of what was going on, but had even adapted lyrics of popular songs at the time to mock the children being abused in the old Kilmainham ambulance division in Dolphin's Barn.

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