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Seanad
‹ Order of Business

RTÉ Investigates abuse cases

Summary

Senator Boyhan seconded the amendment and said last night's investigation into foster care abuse justified bringing the Minister for Children back to the House. Senator Conway also supported the need to commend the women involved and seek a response.

Being conscious of the time, I will deal quickly with two issues. First, I formerly second the amendment to the Order of Business that Senator Warfield outlined.

I will touch briefly on last night's "RTÉ Investigates". Without commenting in detail, it is timely and appropriate that we would have the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, come back to the House. The Minister was here previously and we had a long and protracted debate about Tusla. It was clear from last night's programme that those three brave women who had to put in the public domain their story did a service to the people of this country to give confidence to others to be able to come forward and report what is horrific abuse. I pay tribute to "RTÉ Investigates" for the sensitive way in which it dealt with that particular programme.

I ask the Leader if he would consider, when appropriate, in the timescale the Minister has available to her, that she could come specifically to talk about progress regarding Tusla and maybe to touch on some of the commitments that the Minister gave us on her last visit here when she talked about the need to increase the number of social workers. The Minister explained that she was seeking further funding from Government. In last night's programme, yet again, we heard stories from people regarding the shortage of social workers. That is not the Minister's fault. That is not the Government's fault. We need to be seen. We need to do everything possible to train, secure, fund and resource social workers to support children who are in care who cannot be fostered for various reasons, but also to monitor and act as an advocate and a link for them within the social services.

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Denis O'Donovan An Cathaoirleach Fianna Fáil

Finally, Senator Conway.

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I support Senator Maria Byrne in her call that the Government should support J.P. McManus's bid to host the Ryder Cup. It would be phenomenal for the mid-west if that were to happen. I would also like the Government to see if it can facilitate Lahinch in County Clare hosting the Irish Open next year. I believe it probably has an excellent chance of succeeding. Certainly, that would help my region, the west of Ireland and County Clare if it happened.

Like Senator Boyhan, my main purpose for speaking today is to commend the bravery of those who appeared on "RTÉ Investigates" last night and to commend Ms Aoife Hegarty and the "RTÉ Investigates" team for the incredible work they are doing in exposing serious wrongs in the State. It is only a short few weeks ago that there was a public outcry over a bishop saying a mass at a particular priest's funeral, and rightly so. That outcry was correct and proper, but I have not yet heard of anybody resigning from the HSE over what happened in this particular case.

I believe that people should be held accountable. It is not good enough. There comes a time when heads need to roll and accountability has to apply and be seen to apply. It is simply not good enough that those people were put through what they have been put through. This is not the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s or 1990s. This is only a few years ago. It is time our society learned and that heads rolled and people lost their jobs over the decisions they make. It is appropriate that we should have the Minister for Health and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in here to debate the protocols that are in place.

This is only a few years ago and who is to say it is still not happening? As a society, can we say vulnerable children are not being left in dangerous situations?

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