Child Abuse Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-08 ============================================================ Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister of State for coming along today. He can see from my Commencement matter that these are very grave matters, and they revolve around several issues. First and foremost is the potential rape and sexual assault of children in HSE West and North-West, that is, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal. I have raised these issues in the health committee, on the floor of this House during the Order of Business and in previous Commencement matters, and no meaningful action has been taken. This issue refers to three people of conscience in the HSE; three fine clinicians who reached out to me almost two years ago, and whom I have met in Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo. They told me one of them was informed of a child sexual assault or the potential for one - even a rape of a child - and under the guidelines, this requires mandatory reporting, so they set about reporting it to An Garda Síochána and Tusla. However, they then experienced reprisal, harassment and bullying in the workplace from a senior manager who directed them not to report their concerns. Not reporting their concerns is a criminal offence. For a senior manager to instruct, direct or advise these clinicians not to make this report is also a criminal offence, is it not? No disciplinary process has been taken against that individual and there has been no investigation into that person. The reason I am here today is because I met those three clinicians again and there was another similar incident earlier this year - a second time. A woman came into the clinic and expressed concerns - and I am sorry to use this language here - that she had discovered her spouse - her husband - was accessing child pornography images and films through his devices. These are crime scenes. This is the sexual abuse and rape of children. She reported this and her concerns about children in the family and neighbouring children but again, when they reported this, there was push-back from the same management team to say they should not be reporting this. It was even suggested that one of these clinicians had a mental disorder. They raised these concerns because they are people of conscience and they have great moral courage, notwithstanding the reprisal and intimidation they have experienced. I have seen the email exchanges between this individual and these three clinicians. It is appalling; you could not make it up. However, as this is a very grave and dark thing, they raised these concerns by way of protected disclosures in February 2025. Here we are, 18 months later, and no action has been properly taken. Those protected disclosures have not been processed about a child safety issue. Are the people of Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon happy that their children are left in an environment where grave concerns - criminal concerns - are raised and, by way of the processes set out, no meaningful action is taken? Some of the oft-repeated questions in politics are when people found out and, when they did, what they did about it. I raised this by way of Commencement matter and on the Order of Business last year and in October I informed the regional executive officer of HSE West and North-West about this. I reminded him of it. Therefore, today I am at the end of my tether. I have raised serious issues in this country, about sexual assault and rape of female soldiers, for example, and now a tribunal is sitting up in Smithfield at huge expense to the taxpayer. It is Tom Clonan for slow learners. I raised all those issues 25 years ago and here I am. George Gibney is up in the courts waiting to be sentenced. It took, as Senator Boyhan said here yesterday, 50 years for his paedophilia and abuse to be reckoned with. What are we going to do in HSE West and North-West? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-08/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:10+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-08