St John Ambulance abuse report
Senator Seery Kearney called for publication of the St John Ambulance report on sexual abuse and praised Mick Finnegan's protest. She then argued for a debate on tackling a newspaper and wider misinformation that spreads lies and fear.
I will raise two matters. One is very close to the Deputy Leader's heart and relates to the motion she tabled. It concerns the publication of the St. John Ambulance report regarding sexual abuse in that organisation. I pay tribute to Mr. Mick Finnegan who today is on day 11 of his protest outside the St. John Ambulance headquarters. I intend to go there shortly to support him. He is a fantastic advocate. It is very brave of him to speak, to do so publicly, and to stand firm in the face of absolutely appalling intransigence.
I am preaching to the converted in addressing the Deputy Leader on this matter but it is quite appalling that we still do not have that report so many months on; she would be more accurate on that. I again call on St. John Ambulance to publish the report. There is no excuse for not doing so. The Deputy Leader talked about funding and looking at other creative ways of dealing with this. It is very important that we do that.
Over the past couple of days, a leaflet has been handed out telling young women to stay at home after 6 p.m. The leaflet purports to be published by some centre for diversity, which it has not been and has been denied by that centre. The leaflet has misspelled Rialtas na hÉireann, even though it purports to be from the Government. This level of misinformation is an absolute and utter hate crime. It is incitement to hatred to allege that suddenly in Ireland it is unsafe for girls to go out after dark and there is some pervasive activity from newcomers to Ireland. The fact that this is handed out is in itself appalling but someone is funding this.
Comment on this
We need to have a debate on how we deal with that. A former journalist is putting out a newspaper on a regular basis that is full of lies and misinformation. We seem powerless to stop that. This is having an effect on people who do not enter into such information with critical thinking asking what the agenda is, how this is truthful, and what it actually means. It is infecting communities where there are fears. I want us to have a debate on how we deal with that.