Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Today, we are discussing a directive which, as a country and Parliament, we have helped to develop. As such, we are very familiar with it. The Minister of State, Deputy Donohoe, referred in his contribution to the Lanzarote Convention. Like Senator Leyden, I am a member of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly. There is much duplication between the Lanzarote Convention and this directive. I am also a member of the One in Five campaign group in the Council of Europe which was established to ensure the Lanzarote Convention and EU directive are fully implemented in all countries. I report regularly to the group, which meets four times a year, on progress in this regard.

At the end of 2012, I reported directly on progress made in this country in terms of our legislative input. As referred to by the Minister of State, much progress has been made. It must be remembered that progress has come from the fact that, since 1980, we have had 27 reports on the failure of our State and society to protect our children. The Children First legislation, which follows on from the Children First guidelines introduced in July 2011, will ensure we have a robust statutory framework in place and ensure compliance and best practice in our child protection services. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, has stated that since the introduction of those guidelines, the number of referrals to our child protection services have increased by 25%. Standards have also been improved. There have been many reports highlighting fragmentation, inconsistency and a lack of accountability in our child protection services. New performance indicators have been established, the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, has introduced new standards, and regulations are being introduced to facilitate reporting of trends from in camera court proceedings. The Child and Family Agency Bill is currently before the Oireachtas. Following its enactment, responsibility for protection of children will be transferred from the HSE to a new child and family support agency, which will include 4,000 staff from across the HSE, child and family services, the Family Support Agency and National Education Welfare Board, NEWB.

Also, a missing child hotline, under the auspices of the ISPCC, has been established. This should have been put in place a number of years ago.

The Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act was introduced last year. Legislation on sexual offences is the only missing piece of the jigsaw. As the Minister of State and a number of speakers noted, it is an important element.

I thank Senator Jillian van Turnhout for a highly enlightening briefing she arranged in February 2012 prior to a debate on a motion tabled in the House. The subject matter was the dangers the Internet poses to children, especially in respect of child abuse material. We should use this term, rather than the term "child pornography", as the latter tends to minimise the crime involved. Child abuse material is effectively a crime scene which can be distributed globally in an instant.

A significant gap has arisen in this area. As previous speakers noted, technology continues to be one step ahead of legislators. This will always be the case. During the presentation by representatives of ChildWatch, the Garda Síochána and Interpol, I learned that efforts to block images of child abuse material will never be completely successful because some sharp individuals will always be able to circumvent them. Casual browsers who encounter these types of images may be disgusted and may immediately leave the site in question. Some will return subsequently, however, and become sucked into the whole thing, which contributes to the international problem of child abuse.