Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will raise two matters. One is very close to the Deputy Leader's heart and relates to the motion she tabled. It concerns the publication of the St. John Ambulance report regarding sexual abuse in that organisation. I pay tribute to Mr. Mick Finnegan who today is on day 11 of his protest outside the St. John Ambulance headquarters. I intend to go there shortly to support him. He is a fantastic advocate. It is very brave of him to speak, to do so publicly, and to stand firm in the face of absolutely appalling intransigence.

I am preaching to the converted in addressing the Deputy Leader on this matter but it is quite appalling that we still do not have that report so many months on; she would be more accurate on that. I again call on St. John Ambulance to publish the report. There is no excuse for not doing so. The Deputy Leader talked about funding and looking at other creative ways of dealing with this. It is very important that we do that.

Over the past couple of days, a leaflet has been handed out telling young women to stay at home after 6 p.m. The leaflet purports to be published by some centre for diversity, which it has not been and has been denied by that centre. The leaflet has misspelled Rialtas na hÉireann, even though it purports to be from the Government. This level of misinformation is an absolute and utter hate crime. It is incitement to hatred to allege that suddenly in Ireland it is unsafe for girls to go out after dark and there is some pervasive activity from newcomers to Ireland. The fact that this is handed out is in itself appalling but someone is funding this.