Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As chair of the Oireachtas cross-party group on cancer, it was great to learn at the weekend that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, will finally legislate to allow women undergoing cancer treatment during their maternity leave to defer that leave until their treatment ends. I do not need to explain to anyone in this House how important this is or what a huge difference it would make to these mothers, their children and their other family members.There was a huge public awareness campaign led by the Irish Cancer Society, and it really has to be commended on this campaign, together with its patient advocates. These include women like Erica Tierney, Mary Canavan and Emma McGuinness, who bravely came in and out of this House, day in, day out, and who have been championing this cause that affects 60 women every year in Ireland.

As chair and a member of the cross-party group, I have raised this matter directly with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman in this House and other fora. All members of the cross-party group are determined to see this issue resolved. We have our own Bill in the offing, and we hope we will not need to bring a Private Member's Bill to move this matter forward. We hope that the Minister will publish his legislation as soon as possible in order that we can see this matter fully and finally resolved.

The second issue I want to raise is an absolutely horrendous one. It regards the sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy in a residential facility funded by the HSE. This is every parent's worst nightmare. When a family makes the really difficult decision to leave a child in the care of the HSE, they expect the utmost of standards. They expect the highest standards of care. The details of the sexual assault are quite stark. I do not want to go into it today but it was really shocking. The mother of this boy was not alerted about the incident for three days. Tusla was not contacted for three days, and this facility waited 11 days before An Garda Síochána was contacted. This is not acceptable in this day and age. We need answers for this boy's family. We need to see some sort of consequences for this facility. What actions will the HSE take now with regard to this centre and how is it looking at other centres? How are families expected to trust the HSE when they leave their loved ones in these facilities to care for their children, when they are not getting the 24-hour care they are there for? I hope that for this particular boy, there is a proper support plan in place. The trauma that he has gone through is so hard to fathom. I would love to see what the Minister has to say on this matter.