Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

-----but I spoke on Second Stage and I raised some of these concerns, and I am sure others did as well. For the record, we all spoke at length about some of the horrible stuff that went on, the impacts on the victims and the sexual, physical and other abuse. It is not fair to suggest that is not as big a concern. I do not know why this is a source of amusement. I honestly do not. It is incredible. I do not know what the smiles are about. We have all heard the testimonies and we are all keen to do something to make sure that sort of stuff does not happen again.

I do not even know who the Secretary General of the Department of Defence is so I am not casting any personal aspersions on him or her as an individual, but what I know is institutions and organisations of State and all other kinds have a tendency sometimes to defend their own territory and to be resistant to people who want to question what they have done or how they do things. That is why you have independent external oversight.

When one thinks about the church and State scandals in this country in terms of industrial schools and mother and baby homes, let us be honest, State Departments did not exactly cover themselves in glory. That does not mean everybody in them were horrible people, or individuals they were naming, but external independent oversight should mean external independent oversight so that you do not have conflicts of interest. I cited the example I did because I found it lacking, as if we will go and ask the management is there anything behind this, the management in the Defence Forces will say there is nothing behind it and that will be the end of it. That does not indicate a great willingness to get to the bottom of certain things.

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