Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I have three items I want to discuss. First is in respect of the Minister for Education and Youth, Deputy McEntee’s announcement on the commission yesterday. The second item is the new planning guidelines as espoused by the Government, and the third item is the new security allowances and the related circular to be issued today by the Department of housing and local government.

I will go back to the Minister, Deputy McEntee, first. I warmly welcome the announcement that she will establish, with the Government, a commission of investigation into historical sexual abuse in all of the day and boarding schools. The catch here is sexual abuse. I listened to my colleague, Senator McDowell, on "Drivetime" last night and other commentators in the media yesterday and today. There is a sort of subtlety in that - I want to drive that message home here today - abuse comes in many forms, including sexual, physical and emotional abuse. There should not be a hook that will allow the Government off on the basis that the investigation can only be into sexual abuse. All forms of abuse are abuse. If a child of six is beaten over the head for two years in a school, that child stops learning and his or her emotional development is curtailed. That is abuse. Let us not decouple sexual abuse from emotional or any other form of abuse. That is a message I will continue to drive home. Abuse comes in many forms, as does redress. It is not all about money; it is about healthcare, housing and supports such as psychological supports. We went through all of this last week and we know where it got us and which people stood up to be counted and those who did not. Sometimes it is not what you do, it is what you do not do. That is a message I commit to continue to drive home.

In regard to the Government's apartment guidelines, I support the Government in any effort to enhance the development of our homes but I do not support single-aspect boxes facing north that need heating in summer and winter, or single-aspect apartments facing south that need energy to cool down in the summer. We need to look at that again. I sat in on the housing committee yesterday evening where the Minister, Deputy Browne, made the case that between €50,000 and €100,000 per unit would be saved as a result of this scheme. There is no evidence of that. He was not in a position to furnish such evidence to the committee yesterday. I hope we will tease that out during the ongoing debate.

Finally, I thank the Association of Irish Local Government, the Local Authorities Members Association, the Senators here and the councillors who lobbied hard to see a reasonable and fair increase in the allowances for security. That process has now come to an end. The Minister with overall responsibility for housing, planning and local government has prepared a circular and my full understanding is that it will be issued to everybody this morning. I thank the Minister for seeing that through. I thank all those who advocated to make the case for a better deal for our city and county councillors in regard to the security allowance attached to their work.