Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak on this motion on behalf of the Sinn Féin Seanad team and we were happy to cosign it. It is a perfect example of how this House can work collaboratively for a common cause. Recent weeks have been difficult for everybody who has been listening to the airwaves as we once again expose how far the State needs to go to protect children from sexual abuse and to end the institutional cover-up of that abuse.Abusers in this country seem to be able to abuse for years and, in the case of perpetrators in St. John Ambulance, for decades. We call today for the publication of the review conducted by Dr. Geoffrey Shannon into allegations of sexual abuse at that organisation. The board of St. John Ambulance must publish the report without further delay. Dr. Shannon confirmed its completion at the end of October. It is cruel to delay its publication any longer. In fact, it is retraumatising survivors to make them wait.

I welcome Mr. Mick Finnegan to the Chamber, whom I had the pleasure of meeting before today. I commend him on being so brave in refusing to give up on his campaign for justice. He has spoken openly about the abuse he experienced at the age of 14 by a senior staff member of St. John Ambulance and the fact he reported the abuse 20 years ago to his family, the organisation and the Garda. Everybody knows that coming forward as a survivor of sexual abuse takes a huge amount of courage. Unfortunately for Mr. Finnegan, nobody wanted to know. He has stated:

Nobody believed me or wanted to listen to me. This was 1999. It wasn't 1950s Ireland. But no-one cared about kids in the inner city getting abused...

He has spoken about how his life unravelled and he ended up homeless as a teenager, sleeping rough on the streets, and how it robbed him of his relationship with his family. We hear stories like this all the time, with men and women talking about the impact abuse has on them for their entire lives. Survivors pay a life sentence for the abuse they experienced, while, in many cases, their abusers are allowed to continue working in the institutions and organisations in which they are employed. We have seen the same this week with abusers in the Spiritan order, who were moved to another location when they became too problematic.

The State must step up and change this culture. There must be no more circling of the wagons, silencing and cover-ups. All of that has to stop. In the case of St. John Ambulance, it is shocking that the man who drafted its child protection policy was given a 12-month suspended sentence for grooming a child online. This was the man who wrote the child protection policy for the organisation. St. John Ambulance must be held to account. It needs root-and-branch reform in order that those who knew about the abuse and remained silent are removed, replaced and held to account. To date, at least eight men have come forward to say they were abused in the organisation. They deserve to see the report to which they so courageously contributed.

I echo my colleagues' calls for the report to be released. Equally, this is not just about the board of St. John Ambulance and the publication of this report. It is about the State's responsibility to protect the children who live on this island from sexual abuse and to act when those children come forward to report that abuse.