I acknowledge the survivors here, both in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery and those who have joined us as a community in other ways. The apology offered today by the Taoiseach is an important acknowledgement by the State of the wrong done to young boys and young men within this State and not acknowledged or handled correctly in any way by the institutions of this State. For the survivors gathered here and those potentially listening beyond these walls, of course this moment is about something much more important than words. It is about taking this time to recognise that lives were forever changed. It is about acknowledging that childhoods that should have been marked by safety and possibility were instead scarred by the worst form of abuse possible. It is about sitting with those who were children, now grown, and understanding the shock of abuse that occurred to them, the confusion and difficulty in articulating it, and nevertheless finding space for some people to be able to articulate it who were not heard and not respected by the State. It is about honouring today the extraordinary courage of those who have carried these burdens, often in silence, for many decades. To the survivors of the predator, Bill Kenneally, I want to say that we recognise the pain that you have endured. We recognise and say loudly the profound impact this abuse has had on you throughout your lives and your families. It has cast a long shadow across years that should have been filled with other things. As Minister for Health, I am particularly conscious of the ongoing impact that childhood trauma can have. We know that harm caused by sexual abuse does not end when the abuse ends. It can travel through a lifetime, leaving wounds that are deeply felt. Today, we acknowledge not only the terrible crimes committed by Bill Kenneally but also the failures of institutions that should have protected children when warning signs emerged. The South East Independent Commission - and I thank Michael White in particular for his excellent work on this - found that when all of the evidence, expert opinion, guidelines and protocols at the time were considered, the South Eastern Health Board should have acted on the report prepared by Dr. Geraldine Nolan on 6 March 1989. That should have happened. That finding weighs heavily on me. It will weigh heavily on my predecessors and all those in the health system because that failure involved real people and real lives. The failure of the South Eastern Health Board to act on child protection concerns was not simply a procedural failure. It was a lost opportunity to stop the continuing criminal abuse of children. It was a lost opportunity to intervene, to protect, and to bring accountability many years earlier than it eventually occurred. As Deputy Bacik said, the legal environment already existed. For survivors, that failure came at a human cost and today, we must confront that truth, as the commission has done. No words can return those stolen childhoods or change or ease the suffering that was endured but we can do better and we can learn. The report illustrates clearly that the Irish State, through its laws, its services for children and its sex education and awareness but, more than anything else, its combined culture of protecting the powerful, was blind to child sexual abuse operating under the surface in far too many places. Children were silenced by shame and by their natural inability to articulate what was happening to them as children, and by the shock and confusion of abuse. I note that the report also recognises that changes in legislation, services, and understanding of child exploitation have been profound. The approach of statutory services has changed beyond recognition. I also want to say that those changes came many decades later and did not come easily. I recall when I came into this House as an adviser first and being presented with the Cloyne report, which detailed abuse in the diocese of Cloyne up to 2007. It was published in 2011. That was a report where the bishops, the church leaders, exploited what had been voluntary child protection guidelines to choose not to report abusers to gardaí. With some difficulty, Frances Fitzgerald and Alan Shatter at the time introduced significant legislative change to require mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, which was challenged by the church at the time as being potentially in breach of the seal of the confession, if you recall. It was an astonishing response to a fundamentally important change, taking the child protection guidelines, which were then voluntary, and putting them on a statutory basis. It took some four years for the Children First Act to be enacted by this House. That Act is important because it has changed the landscape and legal obligation of mandated people, including teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers and childcare staff, who are now legally obliged to notify and assist Tusla where there is a risk of significant harm to the child. That is not offered by any measure of defence of any kind but simply to acknowledge how fundamentally the child protection landscape has changed and needed to change, and yet how difficult it was to ultimately make those changes in the face of a strong interest in continuing to protect the powerful from the accountability that was necessary. Child protection is never somebody else's responsibility. Concerns must be acted upon, not deferred. Information must be shared. Professional warnings must be heeded. Children must always come first. This report has clearly shown the health system's failure as part of that. Where a child is at risk, inaction has serious consequences. The legacy of this report is more than remembrance and recognition. It is another imperative for all of us as legislators to be vigilant and continually vigilant about our commitment across health and social care and all other services where children are in contact, to place the safety and well-being of children at the very centre of everything that we do. To the survivors, your courage told truths that other people chose to ignore and sought to ignore, the abuse that you suffered, the opportunities to protect you that were missed, the bravery it took to articulate those things at a time when you would not heard, the failure of the State, both in its health services and An Garda Síochána, to act when it should have acted, and the hurt that flowed for so many people from all of those failures. I hope that today will stand as a recognition of your truth and a tribute to your courage. I hope that it will stand for us as legislators and for those who will follow us here as a promise that the lessons of the past will never be forgotten.

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