GREEN PARTY leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley has called for all-party agreement on a referendum on the rights of children as the best monument to the victims of residential abuse.
He was speaking during the second day of the Dáil debate on an all-party motion accepting the recommendations of the Ryan commission into child abuse and acknowledging the pain and suffering endured by the former residents of institutions.
It was time for action on the proposed constitutional amendment on rights of children, he said. “We have been debating this issue for more than four years in this House but the time for debate has concluded. I urge all parties in the House to find consensus through the work of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children, which is due to report in September.”
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern made a commitment more than three years ago to hold a referendum to strengthen the rights of children, but agreement on the complex legal issues involved has not yet been reached by the committee established to examine the issue.
The Children’s Rights Alliance welcomed Mr Gormley’s call for a referendum, saying that in its briefings to all political parties this week it had proposed such a constitutional amendment as “a living memorial”.
“We thank Minister Gormley for his considered response and timely intervention, and call on the other political parties to now follow suit and issue a similar statement. We also urge the members of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children to reach political consensus on a proposed wording for a constitutional amendment to strengthen children’s rights that can be put before the Irish people as soon as is practicable,” said the statement.
During yesterday’s debate, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe rejected a scathing attack on Department of Education officials by Labour Party education spokesman Ruairí Quinn.
“I don’t accept that Deputy Quinn has the right to use the privilege of this House to impugn the personal integrity and motivations of civil servants working in my or any other department. His language and personal allegations about these civil servants would be risible if it were not for the serious context in which they were made,” said Mr O’Keeffe.
He said he wanted to put on the Dáil record that in his year as Minister for Education he had always found his officials to be motivated by a strong desire to make the best choice in the public interest.
“Far from the laziness and destructiveness Deputy Quinn alleges, I’ve found a huge commitment to their work and willingness to go the extra mile,” he said.
In the Dáil on Thursday, Mr Quinn complained he had been unable to get detailed information from the Department of Education about the number of primary schools owned by the Catholic Church or religious orders.
“Either officials in the department are members of secret societies such as the Knights of St Columbanus and Opus Dei and have taken it upon themselves to protect the interests of these clerical orders at this point in time in this year of 2009 or, alternatively, the Minister is politically incompetent and incapable of managing the Department of Education and Science,” Mr Quinn said.
Mr O’Keeffe said Mr Quinn had every right to express in the Dáil his view about his performance as a Minister or the performance of his department.
“Deputy Quinn is right to point to areas where improvement is needed. I, and indeed my Department, would agree with him on some of this.
‘‘I accept that it’s a problem that the information sought by the deputy isn’t readily available because of information technology and database inadequacies,” he said, adding he has asked his department to compile ownership information for schools in an accessible format for presentation.
