Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In the same way that a school must have a designated liaison person in terms of its implementation of Children First, so must IPAS centres which have children there. I am aware that not all of them have children there, but those that do have to require that. We have an officer in our Department making sure there is compliance with that because that is absolutely essential.

I acknowledge the work the Ombudsman for Children has done in terms of highlighting imperfections. There are many imperfections in the system. I absolutely recognise that. Working with our Department to improve them is really important. His focus in the report we discussed was on children within the system, usually with their parents. There is work taking place, in terms of the work we are doing with the child and young people's service committee, CYPSC, all over the country to do more in-reach into international protection accommodation where there are children and also work we are doing directly with Tusla in terms of the use of new family support workers who go into international protection centres where there are children and work with the parents there in terms of providing additional supports.

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