Sarah O'Reilly (Aontú)

I thank the Minister for coming in today to discuss this important issue. I welcome that we are going to have a commission of investigation into sexual abuse in schools over several decades. I read the draft terms of reference for the commission of investigation last night and I am concerned about some of the wording and provisions in it. In recent weeks we have had legislation from Senator Eileen Flynn about the importance of language when talking about child abuse. People from across the political spectrum supported that legislation. These terms of reference provide a very strange definition of child abuse which is sanitised and shows a disregard for the victim. It is not appropriate to describe the sexual abuse of a child as an interaction for sexual gratification. That definition needs to change because it is disgusting.

The other problem I have with the terms is that they permit the commission to come back to the Government to change the terms to allow for a time extension. It is so predictable that this will happen for sure. The final report will be delayed for years. Then we will have a long-drawn-out discussion about redress and most of these survivors will be deceased by the time any redress is available.

In other countries, it is normal practice that when commissions of inquiry uncover criminal activity, they are mandated to report that to the police. These terms of reference provide no such mandate and go so far as to prohibit the commission from making statements of fact about organisations or individuals. For example, the Government's terms mean that the commission, after the investigation is over, cannot come out and say that children were failed by the Department of education. If this is the case, why bother with the commission at all? We need to do right by survivors here today. The Government needs to listen to them and to Opposition parties before it fully nails down the terms of reference.

Our first priority must be to those who were abused. I ask the Minister to inform the House today if any consultation with survivors of sexual abuse in schools was done before producing these terms of reference. Aontú is cautious of this proposal and certainly the terms need changes, amendments and corrections before we commit our full support. We need to be absolutely confident that the terms allow for justice to be achieved. At the moment I do not have that confidence.