Parties have responsibility to protect children, says NI Secretary

The Northern Ireland Secretary has said political parties have a responsibility to implement safeguarding policies to protect children and vulnerable people.

Hilary Benn was speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions, which was broadcast from the Crescent Arts Center in Belfast on Friday evening.

In response to an audience question, Benn said any attempt to put the reputation of an institution above the protection of children and vulnerable people is "absolutely wrong".

"When things like this happen, does it damage politics? Well, of course it has an effect, of course it does," he added.

During the radio programme, an audience member asked: “How do scandals involving safeguarding damage trust in our politics?”

BBC Radio 4's Alex Forsyth contextualised the query by outlining recent political scandals in Northern Ireland.

Sinn Féin has been embroiled in separate controversies in recent weeks involving party members, who have now left the republican party.

Two Sinn Fein press officers provided a job reference for a former press office colleague, Michael McMonagle, who was under investigation for child sex offences. He recently pleaded guilty to child sex abuse.

This week, the party was accused of misleading the public after it emerged that it failed to explain that a senator, Niall Ó Donnghaile, who resigned from the Seanad (Irish senate) at the end of last year had been suspended for sending inappropriate texts to a teenage boy.

Mr Benn said: "The first thing I would say is there are victims in both of these cases and our thoughts above all should be with them.

"Secondly, one of the cases, the legal proceedings are still live, and it would not of course be appropriate to comment on those."

However, he added: "When things like this happen, does it damage politics? Well, of course it has an effect, of course it does."

Mr Benn added: "But, I would have thought that by now, all of us, all institutions, would have understood from the historic sex abuse cases that have come to light in the last 10, 20, 30 years about what went on in the past, that we would have realised that any attempt to put the reputation of an institution above the protection of children and vulnerable people is wrong, is absolutely wrong."

He concluded: "I would say that all political parties, all institutions, all sections of society, have a responsibility to ensure that they put in place measures, proper safeguarding to protect the interests of those who are children and those who are vulnerable."