Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

This is a harrowing and powerful debate. The Seanad can be proud of the work of it is doing this morning. I the dreadful contents of this report can be debated in great detail in this forum over the coming weeks and months. I have listened with interest and awe to the powerful contributions that have been made by my colleagues. I was very impressed with the historical analysis that was given by Senator Harris. When we consider the manner in which the children of this nation were dealt with, as outlined in the report that was published yesterday, we can safely say the Proclamation of the Irish Republic was quickly subsumed into the valley of the squinting windows. Rather than "cherishing all the children of the nation equally", we decided instead to control the children of the nation brutally. The Republic became the cover-up capital of the world. That veil of secrecy remains in place, to some extent. As Senator Cannon said, we face a huge challenge if we are to deal with this report and seek justice. We need to deal with the fact that children in this Republic continue to be abused and terrorised. We must accept that some of them are malnourished, hungry, frightened and fearful. That is our challenge. As well as offering justice to the victims of the past, we need to safeguard the security of children today. I look forward to a full debate on this dreadful report at an early stage. I concur with what Senator Mullen said about the great work that is being done by many Christian people, including priests and brothers. It is a shame that the behaviour of a minority, perhaps a large minority sadly, has infected the good name of many decent people who are involved with the church. I am sure we will debate these matters on another occasion. This morning, we must simply acknowledge the pain and suffering of the victims and promise that it will not happen again. I accept that such commitments were made and broken in the past. As a nation, and as a House of the Oireachtas, we should not break our word ever again.