Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Díospóireacht iontach tábhachtach é seo agus fáiltímid, go ginearálta, roimh an mBille seo atá á thabhairt chun cinn ag an Aire. Go deimhin, bhí páirt dlúth ag mo chomhghleacaithe, na Teachtaí Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin agus Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, ins an plé ar fad a bhí ann maidir leis an mBille.

I welcome the Bill and commend the Minister for bringing it forward. We are all aware that the State has a poor track record in protecting children. We can look back on the history of industrial schools, general schools, churches, institutions and clubs where children were left open to abuse.

During the debate on the Bill in the Dáil, my colleague, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, drew attention to a 2011 report by the special rapporteur on child protection, Mr. Geoffrey Shannon, which exposed the alarming inadequacy of laws, procedures and resources to protect children from abuse. He highlighted the lack of regulated access to soft information on potential abusers of children as one of the main issues that needed to be tackled. Sinn Féin agrees with this viewpoint. During his time on the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin joined with the other members of the committee, in September 2008, to recommend that legislation to regulate soft information be introduced. We are glad to see this done. It is long overdue but it is also appropriate that it is now being debated some weeks after the constitutional amendment to protect children was passed.

The purpose of the Bill is to regulate and control the manner in which records of criminal convictions and information, including so-called soft information, can be stored and disclosed by the Garda Síochána and other agencies for the purpose of child protection. Soft information may include, but is not limited to, circumstances in which an allegation of child abuse is made against a person although it does not result in a conviction. It includes conclusions from investigations of child abuse or neglect that have been conducted by the HSE where such investigations have concluded that a person poses a threat to children or vulnerable persons.

As numerous previous contributors have highlighted, there is a balance to be struck, and striking that balance is key. Clearly, the rights and interests of the child are paramount. This is an area in which the State in previous generations simply failed. The State did little or nothing to protect many children, and generally the most vulnerable children, the poor and the marginalised. The State turned a blind eye while various private institutions covered up.

Much of this abuse is now in the past, which is a cause for great relief. It would, however, be naive to think the reality of children being at risk is all in the past. I think, in particular, of our system of direct provision. The Minister of State will be familiar with the difficulties I have with this system. I have expressed reservations about it in the past. It is an inhuman way of treating people and allows for a degree of out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Children who are pushed from pillar to post and then left largely to their own devices are, of course, vulnerable and isolated. Can the Minister of State clarify whether employees of the private companies that run direct provision centres will be covered by the Bill? I hope the Minister for Justice and Equality will soon follow through on his commitments to review the system of treating asylum seekers.

Child safety and the safety of vulnerable people are of paramount importance and we must ensure the highest standards are in place to protect the young and vulnerable. We must also ensure that this right is balanced with the right to due process.

The right to one's good name is covered by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. As such, it should be a cornerstone of any human rights-based justice policy. We must ensure in the desire to protect children that we do not become reckless and run the risk of ruining the good name of innocent people.

The protection of children is a key policy priority and constitutes exceptional circumstances, and in those circumstances there is a clear argument in favour of sharing information. To permit this, certain steps must be taken to ensure the risks are minimal. The dissemination of information must be carefully managed, with independent oversight and subject to robust safeguards. It must be done while ensuring full human rights and data protection compliance. In our view, the provisions concerning soft information should only deal with information that has been brought to the attention of the Garda or the HSE. Persons should be informed if they are placed on a soft information list and be given appropriate opportunity to appeal the limits set upon them by being placed on such a list prior to any request for vetting being placed upon them by a third party.

On the whole, as what the Minister proposes strikes that balance, we are satisfied to support and welcome this legislation. As well as the safeguards, the other key aspect is that there must be adequate resources to ensure these safeguards do not fail. The new national vetting bureau must be properly resourced. The work of vetting and the protection of children will become more onerous in the coming years after the passing of the recent referendum and after the Children First guidelines are placed on a statutory footing. The workload of the bureau will be considerable. Already there are significant pressures on vetting bodies. Approximately 300,000 vetting applications are processed by the Garda vetting unit each year. Figures from the Teaching Council of Ireland reveal that due to lack of resources at the Garda vetting unit, 42,000 teachers still await vetting. There cannot be any shortcuts in this regard or children will be put at risk, innocent people's names will be ruined or both will occur. We must ensure there are robust safeguards, both for soft information, including limits and controls monitored by an independent body, and on how the vetting bureau gains, stores, accesses and reproduces soft information.

There are jurisdictional issues. Sex offenders will move north and south and failure to maintain an awareness of where they are will pose significant risks for children. The partition of the island poses a considerable challenge for the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, in the management of those who pose a risk to children and young people or those who are sex offenders. Currently, agencies in the North risk-manage all sex offenders in a structured way. Risk management approaches are only now being advanced in the Twenty-six Counties. The Government must work with Northern authorities to ensure the safety of children, and there must be uniformity to the best degree possible across the board and across the island.

On balance, we will be pleased to support the legislation while reserving the right to table amendments on Committee Stage.