James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Minister I would like to thank the Senator again for his remarks and will share all of his views with the relevant Ministers. I will certainly come back to the Senator vis-à-vis the HSE and its investigation. The Minister for Justice and Equality has indicated that subject to consultation with the Garda Commissioner, he will examine how any key findings from the Garda review might be appropriately put into the public domain and will engage with this ministerial colleagues on any lessons to be learned from the perspective of any of the other organisations in question.

I would like to reiterate the Minister's expressions of sympathy with all of those affected and his hope that they will be able to avail of the counselling assistance which is on offer. I join with the Minister in offering that sympathy.

We want our children to be safe. It is a terribly sad reflection on previous Irish life that so many children were left in such exposed conditions that people could take advantage of them, and that the mechanisms did not seem to be in place to deal in a speedy fashion with those individuals who would take advantage of children in order to prevent them having numerous victims. Sadly, that is the history and legacy we have, but as the Minister has pointed out, we must learn from those mistakes and ensure that in the future, matters are dealt with in such a way as to put child protection to the fore.