Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I agree with the point made by the Minister of State, Senator Glynn and others that the Children Act is a good piece of legislation. I recall when that legislation was going through the House, both Senator Ryan and I tabled amendments to provide for a commencement date on the total Act. It was not brought forward, however. The former Minister of State, who is now the Minister for Education and Science, assured us there would be no difficulty in putting the whole Act in place, yet we are still waiting. It is a lesson to be learned, but I will leave it at that.

The debate about parents and parenting is important and we should start at the beginning. Those who drafted our Constitution came to the conclusion that parents had extraordinary skills in parenting, education and a variety of other matters. I do not know what the thinking was behind that. It might have been a nice idea, but there was no sense to it. Senator Glynn is correct in saying that children can control their parents, but that may be because some parents have never learned the skill of controlling difficult adolescents. I am a teacher and it took a lot of training and experience to learn how to control children with difficulties, so parents should not be expected to cope without knowing how to do so. Parenting courses should be provided for them.

I always apply the nursery test in this regard. I could visit a nursery in the nearest maternity hospital and without looking at the children, but only seeing their addresses, I would be able to give the Minister of State a profile of where they are likely to finish up during their lives.