Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Yesterday, following the motion regarding the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, I spoke to the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, and we both agreed it would be important to have a debate in the House on the sexual abuse of children. The councillors of Galway and Roscommon who attended yesterday's meeting of the Health Service Executive regional forum expressed serious concern about the make up of the investigation team and asked why the HSE should be involved in an investigation of itself. Councillor Tony Ward asked how many more cases there are that we do not know about because the system is not working and mandatory reporting is not in place. Both sides of the House will agree a full discussion is needed. Senator Healy Eames also referred to this issue yesterday during the debate on the motion. We could come to a positive conclusion on this. How can we make the people in our system report suspicions about child sexual abuse? Unless children who are sexually abused receive first class counselling and treatment, they can suffer from post traumatic stress for the rest of their lives. They can become alcoholics, promiscuous or seriously depressed while never reaching their full potential because they were abused by monsters who are paedophiles.

Children are abused mainly by family members and people looking after them. However, I would like to put on the record the heroic efforts of Father Michael Mernagh who, aged 71, walked 300 km from Cobh Cathedral in County Cork to the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin in atonement for the sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic Church. To me, Fr. Mernagh is a hero. I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State with responsibility for children and youth affairs, Deputy Barry Andrews, to the House to speak about the issue of child abuse, as he did yesterday in the Dáil.