Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

The issue of existing legislation was also raised. That is related to the point I made. We know, regardless of our walk of life, that the law is there. The law must be amenable to implementation, however, and so it is important that people be there to enforce it.

Recently a young child in England was discovered to have starved to death. It is incredible to think such a thing can happen in this part of the world in this day and age. I do not wish to concentrate on teachers but I know that people who work with children are being vetted. That is right but there was a time when it was difficult to get people vetted as speedily as they were needed in whichever service they worked. That might have been an issue with the community organisations concerned, be it football or such like. I understand that the Minister for State has introduced vetting for young teachers coming through college. It is important that others coming back into the profession, perhaps after working abroad, would also undergo this process.

We must try to find a way for people who have suffered abuse to come forward. Why does it take 20, 30 or even 40 years before people have the confidence, or feel enabled to come forward and say that they have been abused? If we could find the key to that I believe we would also find a key to understanding suicide. The Council of Europe published a report some weeks ago in which one of the key statements made by the rapporteur was that adolescents tend to commit suicide because of a fear of failure or because of failure itself. I said that I did not believe this and that my belief was that adolescents may commit suicide because of an inability to communicate, whatever the reason that may be. Perhaps they could not communicate their fear of failure or their sense of perceived failure to someone who might have helped. This is as applicable to the issue under consideration as it is in the issue of suicide. There are many young people in the Visitors Gallery. If any of them are in trouble how might we get them to talk to someone? If they did do so, how can we be sure that the person they have talked to can operate on a level that will yield the required results?

If we examine the role of the HSE as it works with the Department of Education and Science we find many instances where the two bodies are blaming each other. They must come together and decide what is to be done. A very simple example concerns the predicament of a music therapist in Scoil Íosagáin in Buncrana. The National Council for Special Education says the matter is the responsibility of the Health Service Executive and the HSE says the Department of Education and Science is responsible because the case arises in a school.

Those who stand over rapists or abusers and say they know them better than the judge who has just convicted them, perhaps after the perpetrators have admitted guilt, are not being helpful. Those who have been involved in abuse have been perceived as pillars of society. Any other pillar of society who states he or she knows an abuser better than the judge, thereby seeking a lenient sentence, is not doing anyone a service.

I wish the groups involved with the commission well. I hope the process has offered some comfort to victims and I trust it will lead to the empathy, sympathy and action that are required.