Deputy Shatter gave me notice of his intention to raise the matter as to the terms of reference of the inquiry into the case of the woman whose father was convicted of rape and incest in the Central Criminal Court on Monday, 1 March 1993. I might say here that Deputy Nora Owen gave me notice of her intention to raise the matter as to the incest case in County Kilkenny which has shocked the whole country and the proposals, if any, which the Minister for Health has to ensure that health workers, care workers and school authorities are trained and equipped to identify and assist in the early detection and treatment of such cases. Since the matters raised by Deputies Shatter and Owen are similar I suggest that the Deputies should first make their five minute statements to be followed by the Minister who will then reply to both Deputies. Is that satisfactory?
Adjournment Debate. - Kilkenny Incest Case.
Agreed.
That is agreed. Deputy Owen and I would like to share our time with Deputy Frances Fitzgerald.
Is that satisfactory? Agreed.
First, I wish to thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this matter. There is a need for the most comprehensive inquiry to be conducted into the circumstances surrounding this very sad and tragic case. The full detailed history of the hospitalisation of this tragic victim of incest and physical assault must be detailed and an examination conducted into whether her medical history should have resulted in those who came into contact with her investigating her plight at an early stage. Serious questions must be asked as to why action was not taken many years ago to afford essential protection to this young woman when she presented as a pregnant girl of 15 years of age. The claims made by her that she informed a social worker or social workers of her difficulties and that no action was taken must also be given very serious consideration and investigated fully.
The Minister should — and I hope he will tonight — publish the detailed terms of reference under which an inquiry is to be conducted and state the name of the person or persons who will conduct such an inquiry. Such an inquiry should be conducted by a person who is independent of the health board whose activities will come under investigation. The full results of such an inquiry should be published, as should any new guidelines which are required to ensure that where persons are victims of incest, sexual abuse or sexual assault in the home earlier protective action is taken than was taken in this very sad and tragic case.
It seems that currently there are conflicting legal views as to the length of prison sentence the judge could impose in this case. The vast majority of people would regard the sentence of seven years imposed as too lenient. It is clear that under section 1 of the Prevention of Incest Act, 1908, that this is the maximum sentence. However, it is arguable that a sentence of life imprisonment could have been imposed under other legal provisions. It should not be left to future court decisions in other tragic cases to clarify the position. In cases as grave and as serious as this one the Judiciary should be able to impose sentences of up to a maximum of 20 years and there should be no uncertainty as to the possible sentence. In this context I ask the Government, and the Minister, to support the Fine Gael Prevention of Incest (Amendment) Bill, 1993, which I moved in the House this morning. I also hope this Bill will not be regarded as contentious and that it will receive the support of all sides of this House and be enacted into law. I hope, in detailing the position in regard to the inquiry, the Minister will state when a full report is anticipated. This inquiry must be conducted in a comprehensive manner and with a reasonable degree of speed.
The revulsion and horror which has swept the country at the details of the Kilkenny incest case, and the brutality and torment suffered by this young woman at the hands of her father must not be allowed to take from the necessary lessons we must learn from this case. The tears I and many others shed as we read the horrific details of this case were tears of sympathy for this young woman and for her mother who must have suffered greatly as she watched her daughter suffering and who was herself oppressed. They were also tears of frustration and anger that these horrors can still be perpetrated against an innocent young woman in our society in the nineties.
I call on the Minister to ensure that every element of the case is fully examined in his inquiry. He must ensure that the roles of the health board, the health care workers, the local doctor or doctors who saw this young woman, the hospital staff who saw the injuries, the Garda who highlight such cases — here I should like to pay tribute to Garda Agnes Reddy whose vigilance and doggedness appears to have brought the case to light — and the school authorities at the school attended by this girl are examined. Those elements must be examined not so much to apportion blame — nevertheless blame must be apportioned if it is there — but to ensure that this type of case never happens again.
I regret, as is widely known, and we know from our work, this is not an isolated case — and similar cases will come before the courts in the coming months. I call on the Minister to implement all the provisions of the Child Care Act, 1991. While these provisions will not assist this young woman they will certainly help to ensure that such horrific cases do not continue to occur in our society. The Rape Crisis Centre say they are inundated with requests for training and guidance from people running childcare and creche facilities who are concerned to identify abused children but are terrified lest should they identify such abuse they will not have the necessary skills to deal with such problems.
I ask the Minister to assure the House that there will be no shortage of resources to put in place any changes required in our system arising out of the inquiry such as proper training schemes for doctors, health care workers and school authorities and that, irrespective of any other cutback such a commitment will not be abandoned by the Government.
Women and men throughout the country were horrified as details of the ordeal suffered by this young woman from Kilkenny emerged. One of the most disturbing features of the case, as described by the victim herself, was the description of her neighbour's reaction to her plight. I wish to put this case in a slightly broader perspective.
I am afraid this case forces us to ask some very uncomfortable questions about ourselves. We are horrified as a society by this crime, yet there is a deep ambivalence in Ireland to anything that is seen as an attempt to interfere with the family. We have a tendency to idealise the family. We must ask ourselves if we are prepared to stand up and be counted on this issue. I do not think we yet want to believe that such horrific crimes can take place in our midst and within the families. The courage of this young woman in speaking out last night, and the courage of Lavinia Kerwick last year, and the Minister's inquiry could do much to turn the tide of this issue. We still have a tendency to deny that these things can happen in our society.
Child care is one of the most neglected areas of policy here. We are paying the price for this now. This will go on unless we take some action. I would point out to the Minister that only 17 out of the 74 sections of the Child Care Act have been implemented. Is this what the Dáil intended when its legislation was passed? I ask the Minister to implement the remaining provisions of this Act and to also implement some pilot projects so that family support services can be developed.
The inquiry is important but it is also extremely important that no one professional group is made the scapegoat. I ask the Minister to consider what administrative back-up was supplied to the people who had contact with this woman to deal with cases of child sexual abuse. What in-service training was available? What legal support did they have? What supervision was available? We must face up to what is happening to front line staff. I have experience of working with teachers who are very keen to take action in this area but are concerned about interfering with the rights of the family. It is extremely important that principals of schools and boards of management adopt policies on how to handle child sexual abuse. The same applies to all other professional groups who have contact with children in such situations.
I note that in the budget there was no mention of funding for Women's Aid or Rape Crisis Centres throughout the country. If such services had been available in this woman's home area some of this suffering could have been prevented and a stop might have been put to it.
I stress that this is not an isolated case. There are many victims of child sexual abuse. We must continue to break the silence. We must ensure that they get adequate help and that everyone in society — parents, teachers, professionals—is alert to child sexual abuse. The suffering and pain caused to adults and children by non-intervention is horrific. I look forward to hearing in the very near future the results of the Minister's inquiry and I hope it will begin to break the vicious cycle I have described.
I am absolutely horrified at the appailing abuse suffered by the young woman. I am shocked that she was subjected to the most degrading and inhumane ill-treatment and abuse over such a long period of time. I share the widespread anger and revulsion which has been expressed about the case and my heart goes out to the unfortunate victim. Everyone who watched last night's television interview with her has been deeply upset by her harrowing account of the dreadful suffering she endured. I watched it in the Dáil studio and I was weakened by the experience.
I have directed the South-Eastern Health Board to carry out an immediate investigation of the circumstances of this tragic case in so far as the health services are concerned and to report back to me as a matter of urgency.
The terms of reference of the investigation team are:
—to carry out an investigation, in so far as the health services are concerned, of the circumstances surrounding the abuse referred to in the case heard in the Circuit Criminal Court on 1 March 1993; in particular to establish why action to halt the abuse was not taken earlier, and
—to make recommendations for the future investigation and management by the health services of cases of suspected child abuse.
An investigation team is being appointed by the South Eastern Health Board in response to my direction. This will be headed by Catherine McGuinness, S.C. who will be assisted by a senior official of the South Eastern Health Board and a director of community care and medical officer of health and a senior social worker, both of whom will come from another health board area. Contact is presently being made with the individuals concerned.
The terrifying sexual abuse suffered as a child by the young woman happened at a time when the existence of child sexual abuse was not even publicly acknowledged. For example, the Task Force on Child Care Services which reported in 1980 made scant reference to the incidence of incest and other forms of sexual abuse against vulnerable children. This task force was composed of a number of experts in child care and its report focused on what were the major issues of the time.
I make this point not in any way to denigrate the excellent work undertaken by that task force but to illustrate the lack of awareness of child sexual abuse at the time. Since then we have all become far more conscious of the nature and scale of this problem. A number of important initiatives have taken place since the mid 1980s when our awareness of child abuse, and particularly child sexual abuse, began to increase dramatically.
In response to the increase in the reports of child sexual abuse, my Department revised its child abuse guidelines to include specific reference to child sexual abuse. These guidelines were specifically designed to provide guidance for those who are likely to be professionally concerned with any form of child abuse. They spell out clearly the respective responsibilities of and the steps to be taken by the key personnel involved in the identification, investigation and management of suspected cases.
In the Eastern Health Board area units for the investigation and management of alleged child sexual abuse were established early in 1988 at Temple Street Hospital and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. During the same year a special allocation was made to each of the other seven health boards to enable them to establish appropriate services in their areas. Services are now in place in each health board area; some of them are based in a particular hospital in the region while others are provided on a community basis. I might mention that in the South Eastern Health Board area there is now a regional child abuse unit based in Ardkeen Hospital, Waterford.
The Department of Education, for its part, has circulated guidelines to schools setting out procedures for dealing with suspected cases of child abuse that come to light within the school setting.
I might also mention that my Department is currently preparing, in consultation with the Garda Síochána, new guidelines for health boards and the gardaí on a co-ordinated approach to the investigation of suspected cases of child abuse. These new guidelines will focus specifically on the need for greater co-operation between the key personnel involved from both authorities in order to ensure the protection of the child as well as facilitating the full investigation of any crime.
Apart from the continuing process of refining procedures for the identification and investigation of child abuse cases, it is also of the utmost importance to develop programmes aimed at preventing the incidence of all forms of child abuse. In this context I would like to refer to the child abuse prevention programme known as the "Stay Safe Programme", which is currently being implemented in primary schools around the country with the active support of my Department, the Department of Education and the health boards. I had occasion to meet some of the people involved in my own area a fortnight ago and I am very impressed by the degree of penetration we have got already and the degree of support from parents and school authorities for this programme. The aim of the programme is to prevent all forms of child abuse, including bullying, by equipping parents and teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to protect the children in their care. Children are then taught safety skills in the normal classroom context and these skills are reinforced through discussion with parents. This approach increases community awareness and makes children less vulnerable to abuse of all kinds.
The response of parents, teachers and children to the programme has been very positive. The programme has also fostered good working relationships between teachers and members of the local health board community care teams. This has resulted in better co-operation and co-ordination at local level between the main statutory authorities concerned with the welfare of children.
While primary responsibility for investigating allegations of child abuse rests with the professionals, I would like to think that the public at large would play its part by assisting persons such as the unfortunate girl at the centre of this case if and when they become aware of difficulties of this sort. I would like to assure the House that I am concerned to ensure that every measure possible is taken to prevent a recurrence of what happened in this case. Towards this end I will be discussing the matter with the chief executive officers of the eight health boards when I meet them this week and early next week. In particular I will be stressing the necessity to ensure that satisfactory arrangements are in place in their areas for the identification, investigation and management of child abuse.
Reference has been made to the Child Care Act and people will know of my interest and involvement in the passing of that Act over many years. Seventeen sections have become law and I am most anxious that the remainder should become law as soon as possible. There is a number of technical requirements, including a range of complicated and inter-related regulations, that need to be worked out. I will be having discussions with the officials in my Department to see how quickly that can be done.
In the light of consultations and the results of the investigation being carried out by the South-Eastern Health Board and the investigation team they have appointed I shall be reporting to Government at an early date and I hope to give a timeframe to the House in the region of four weeks for the investigation to be concluded. Whatever recommendations come to me I will bring to Government and the necessary measures and procedures will be taken to deal with cases of child abuse to ensure that cases like this do not recur.
And resources.
Will the report be published?
I have no objection to the reports being published.