Joe O'Toole (Independent)

There was a great deal of debate over the weekend about the outcome of the Roscommon incest case and related matters. I did not listen much to it because I can no longer stomach the craw thumping, puke inducing hypocrisy of commentators shedding crocodile tears for children who suffer abuse and neglect while blaming the HSE and everybody else along the way. It is 22 years since I was first elected to the House and there probably has not been one year in that time I have not raised a children related issue ranging from the Stay Safe programme to mandatory reporting. Along the way we have refused to address the issue. We had the same debate following the Kelly Fitzgerald and Kilkenny incest cases and the Ferns report. Time and again we do not give children the confidence to say "No" to deal with abuse. It is more than I can stomach anymore.

There is no honesty in the debate. Each time any of us has moved on the issue, we have been hammered. The same people who tried to stop the State intervening on behalf of the children in Roscommon were outside my gate with posters calling me a pervert and a pornographer when I was promoting the Stay Safe programme. When we tried to introduce this minor, soft programme in schools to give children protection, a number of organisations such as the Knights of St. Columbanus, Family Solidarity, as well as solicitors and politicians, including county councillors, lined up against it. I hope every one of them takes responsibility for what is happening because they are all responsible.

I recall people raising this issue time and again. I recall an edition of "The Late Late Show" during which a well known and popular jazz musician of the showband era from Monaghan stated how bad it was when fathers could not take children on their knees without being accused of being perverts. This is the society we have created and in which we live and I am sick and tired of asking for something to be done because I know it will not happen. Everybody else will say the family is more important than the child and that not interfering with the family is more important than the safety of the child. There is no political will to protect or save children and I cannot see it happening. Let us deal with the issue. Let us say, "Let our children suffer because the family is more important and we are afraid to take action with which some right wing conservative groups might be unhappy."