Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the tragic events which occurred in Monageer, County Wexford. It is important we hold a public debate on these issues and the effect they have on families and communities. We must reflect on how we respond to tragedies as a society. Are we learning from these difficult situations so that they never happen again? The real litmus test for civil servants and politicians is whether our responses change society for the better. I offer my sympathies to the Dunnes' relatives and extended community. We must hope that whoever reads the Monageer report, despite the redactions or blackouts, whether they are HSE officials, those at the top of the Garda Síochána or the Minister of State himself, will follow through with action that will have an impact. It is no good reading the report and not communicating its recommendations and conclusions to effect the necessary changes in the relevant institutions or agencies. That must be the priority for all political parties and, as I said on the Order of Business, a cross-party approach is required. The leader of Fine Gael, Deputy Enda Kenny, has said that publicly.

We have come to this debate to try to improve the lot of children in our society. Fine Gael tabled this motion because we feel there is an opportunity for a committee to analyse and reflect upon this report in a detailed way and to make recommendations. That is the thrust of our motion which was proposed in good faith to ensure such tragedies can be avoided in future. We should all aspire to that goal.

What are the consequences and implications of this report for service providers? How will it feed through the system down to social workers in the field? It identified a lack of resources for people at risk who are crying out for help. Can we respond when that cry for help comes on a dark winter's night when everybody else is asleep? Most tragedies do not occur in broad daylight when everybody is at full thrust at work or in school. They happen when society shuts down for the night and vulnerable people are left isolated. When that time comes for people in darkness, are the necessary services in place for them? They are not at the moment, which amounts to societal neglect.

I can speak from some experience in this regard. My mother was a public health nurse for more than 40 years. As a child I remember growing up in a small community where people would knock on the door at all hours of the morning. Social issues were raised because my mother was the locally identified professional in the area. It was not her job but people knew they could knock on her door and that she would listen to their problems. Over the years, many public health workers, who had no social workers to support them, helped people who were in trouble. They did so voluntarily. They lived in their communities and knew everyone in the area, including the children. In the present climate, unfortunately, we have lost a lot of that personal contact. Public health nurses today do not even live in the districts they work in because they cover vast areas. That is no slight on them because they are overloaded with work, but they do not even know the families they are working with nowadays. That is the sort of society in which we live. It is a sad indictment of where we are but there is something to be learned from it.

In the Monageer case, the Garda and local undertaker responded because they knew the people involved. They referred the case to the social services for action but the State agencies that should have had the professional capacity to deal with these problems were not in a position to respond. As with public health nurses, there are fewer gardaí living in our communities. We can see that the local priest responded in a positive manner in the Monageer case but there are fewer priests in our communities. Therefore those who know our communities are growing further away from them, thus opening up huge voids in which vulnerable people can no longer find a sympathetic ear. This also concerns local gardaí, nurses and doctors who are no longer living in the communities they serve. That is the reality check and the real test for us. If they are not living in the communities they serve, how can the State provide such services? It is obliged to step in under the provisions of the Child Care Act 1991. The State has a duty of care to any vulnerable children at risk but if it cannot respond, it is not fulfilling its obligations to them.

The 1916 Proclamation promised to cherish all the children of the nation equally, but we are not doing so. We realise the necessary resources are at a premium. I am on a school board of management but if children are suspected of being at risk, they are referred to social workers and may be left waiting for months, if not years, for attention. According to recent media reports, 6,500 children have been identified as being at risk, yet they have not been allocated a social worker.

Earlier, we heard from Senator Cannon that thousands of phone calls to the ISPCC remain unanswered. Society is not responding to those cries for help, so who in Government is responsible for all this? There are major lessons to be learned in this regard. Politicians, charity workers and professionals, including gardaí, nurses and teachers, are at the point of contact. Resources should be made available to them to identify children risk. We also need to allocate resources to agencies to ensure that when a cry for help comes, somebody will be in place to respond. If that cry for help goes unanswered, we will have more such tragedies. We will be back in this House debating them but will have moved no further, so more communities will be suffering heartache. We must consider the people in the communities so that when the cry for help comes, we will be ready and able to respond.