Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The bravery of the victims who have come out in recent days is not just to be praised. The message must sink home into every family and particularly every man and boy in the country. Much of this violence has been covered up for years and it has been in a dark corner. The Minister's decision to declare that her goal was zero tolerance was a game changer in many ways. It is not that this can be delivered within a finite number of weeks or months or years or that the instruments she has will certainly lead to it. It is a call for action that everyone must heed. We always will be frustrated by the pace of progress in changing legislation, establishing agencies, rolling out investment plans and changing the curriculum. However, I believe these are the foundation stones that in future will give victims the courage and bravery to come forward in greater numbers. They will assure them that they will be supported when they do come forward and that they will change the hearts and minds of those who have tolerated this blight in our community. I suspect we will always see these awful cases that remind us that deep in our society are these deep pools of sad bitter realities. However, the Minister must not be either discouraged or deflected by this and instead stick to her goal and strategy. It is only when our entire society has joined her in having a zero-tolerance approach that we will have made the progress we need to make.

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