Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I extend my support to the gardaí who were under siege by a gang of youths in Ballyfermot. I am very grateful to the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, for having an immediate meeting with me yesterday in response to that and to discuss what is going on in the community, as he continues the work the Minister, Deputy McEntee, began. I am grateful we are bringing in higher penalties and longer sentences for people who attack front-line workers. It behoves us as a parliamentary community to support the introduction of body cameras for gardaí and support gardaí in their work. I also want to point out that Ballyfermot is a tight-knit community of really good people. It is important that they are not demonised by a tiny cohort and we are careful in our language in support of that community.

I will use my remaining time to highlight two numbers, 17 and 13. Today is day 17 of Mick Finnegan's protest outside the St. John's Ambulance headquarters. It is 13 weeks since the Dr. Geoffrey Shannon's report was placed in the hands of St. John's Ambulance. The report covers the historical child sexual abuse that occurred in that organisation between the 1960s and 1990s. It is outrageous that we still have no word on when the report will be published or why it has not been published by now. A number of matters arise. I stood with the person who was covering the shift last Friday morning and saw the high level of public support for this call on St. John's Ambulance expressed by people walking and driving by. It is shameful that an organisation, which has youth volunteers and access to youths across this country-----