Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let us be honest - we can no longer describe Sinn Féin as a party to be trusted in managing any aspect of child protection or child welfare. In fact, it is emerging to be must closer to a secret society where protecting the organisation is absolutely paramount above all other considerations including the welfare of children and teenagers. All we need to do is look at its track record in this regard. IRA member Seamus Marley raped two teenage boys in an IRA safe house in the 1990s. One of those boys later found himself in a psychiatric hospital. In court, he described how he rang somebody from Sinn Féin to get the help he needed and, following that call, he knew he was on his own in dealing with the trauma - protect the party. In 2000, Liam Adams confessed to his brother Gerry Adams that he had sexually abused his daughter from four years of age, yet Mr. Adams waited nine years to report this confession to the PSNI while his brother continued to work in youth services in Belfast and Dundalk - protect the party. When a 16-year-old Máiría Cahill was raped by a senior IRA member, rather than immediately reporting that crime to the police, an IRA kangaroo court was established and a deeply vulnerable teenager was subjected to the traumatic experience of facing her abuser in a back room in Belfast - protect the party. When a senior Sinn Féin press officer was suspended by the party for child sex abuse, his Sinn Féin staff colleagues then provided him with a supportive reference so that he could secure work in another organisation with access to children - protect the party. Just now, we are learning that Sinn Féin Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, who sent inappropriate text message to a 16-year-old teenager, was allowed by you to continue having access to Leinster House for three months after he informed you of this. You, Deputy McDonald, failed to notify the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad of his reasons for leaving. Deputy McDonald knew why he was stepping down. She was an active participant in an effort to protect the party, issuing a press statement to thank him for his service.

I have a few questions, like many others, which deserve an answer today. Why did Deputy McDonald not immediately seek Senator Ó Donnghaile's resignation in September at the same time she was notifying the PSNI and social services of these text messages? Why did she not inform the Seanad that Sinn Féin's Seanad leader was in fact no longer a member of her party? Was he still in receipt of the leader's allowance during those three months?

If he was not, who was? Why did she choose to participate in deceiving the public into believing that Senator Ó Donnghaile was stepping down for health reasons when she was aware of the real reasons, which were to protect the party? That is all that seems to matter to her and it is done in a pretty ruthless manner to the extent that her own public representatives are now leaving her party because they, themselves, have been victims of that vicious ruthlessness.

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