Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I agree with the previous two speakers and share their sadness at the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. Without question, it is the most shameful episode in Irish history. I was listening yesterday to a number of radio stations on the Internet. They were based in the UK and it was, quite rightly, the lead story, as it was on Sky News. One heard the harrowing accounts of people who suffered abuse at the hands of those evil monsters. For example, one victim, who was at the centre of the documentary, "Dear Daughter" in 1996, said last night that she was terrorised and brutalised from the age of three weeks to 17 years and ten months in an institution. It is appalling, sickening and disgusting. One empathises with Senator O'Toole's passionate contribution about the right-wingers, the extreme head-bangers who stood in the way and provided obstacle after obstacle when people tried to get the truth and when the victims of this horrid and evil abuse attempted to get some type of closure on the issue.

It is not good enough for an organisation such as the HSE, an agent of Government to put obstacles in the way of someone such as the Ombudsman for Children. Neither is it good enough for a number of the recommendations in the Monageer report to be blacked out. If we have learned anything, surely it must be that the first duty of the State is towards those victims. We need to ensure this never happens again and, critically, that these evil monsters and the people who tried to protect them end up in jail where they belong.

I have two other issues to address. One is the ever-falling interest rate. The ECB rate fell again last Thursday week to 1%. I reiterate my call to the Leader to bring the Minister for Finance to the Seanad and try to get agreement on behalf of the thousands of young couples and others who are locked into fixed-rate mortgages. People are paying 4.9%, 5.2% and higher in interest rates because of the advice available about fixed rates when they applied for mortgages two or three years ago. They now find themselves being penalised when they try to change to variable rate mortgages. In some cases people are being quoted €12,000 or €14,000 to break their agreements. We all know that is not going to happen because these people are cash strapped. Will the Leader invite the Minister to address the House so that we can argue that since he has guaranteed the banks using taxpayers' money, there should be some quid pro quo?

My other point is that many people have found themselves on the dole queues in recent times and, unfortunately, there will be many more before the year is out according to the forecasts and expert advice that is available to us, which we have no reason to question. A great many people have information technology, IT, experience and there are plenty of opportunities, apart from challenges, presenting at this time. Many people would prefer to be in training programmes and earning money as opposed to hand-outs from the State. They need, to quote Deputy Eamon Gilmore, to get a hand up. The Government needs to expand its job creation and protection policy, which is clearly lacking at the moment. There are hundreds of thousands of people in America and Australia who can boast of Irish lineage, such as the John F. Kennedys, Ronald Reagans etc., whose families have emigrated over generations. As historical records were burned in the Custom House in the early part of the previous century, thousands no longer have the information available to them if they wish to trace their family trees. I suggest that instead of job creation, protection or training initiatives, we should give people with IT experience an opportunity to go into the parishes, which have very good records going back to the middle of the 19th century, research this type of information and market it in a way that produces jobs, high quality information and extends a great service to the Irish diaspora and the many millions who claim Irish connections. In that context I call for a debate on job creation and job protection in terms of new initiatives that would get the unemployed to come back into the workplace.