Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Everybody is working to ensure that we put in place the best services in terms of special care. Clearly, there are many challenges in relation to the development of the type and level of child protection services that we all want to see provided. This will not happen overnight. As I said on the last occasion we discussed this legislation, there is a national plan in place to increase the number of placements. I note Senator van Turnhout's concern and want to assure her that this issue is a priority for Gordon Jeyes. For the first time since I took office, we will have a national director of special care and the focus will be on the needs of these children. Placements have been and continue to be increased. A huge amount of attention and service is being directed at these children while awaiting placements. They are not on their own. Many of them are in high secure places or specialist foster placements. I take the Senator's point in regard to the High Court's statement that they require special care.

An assessment, consultation and therapy service, ACTS, team has been appointed to work with these children and to provide them with psychological support when in and on leaving the special care placement. The members of this team, which includes among others a psychologist and social worker, were appointed in the past few months. This service has not heretofore been available. There are many challenges in working with this group of children in terms of their high levels of need. Some of them end up requiring placements abroad. It is not feasible right now for us to provide in this country the range of services these children need. However, our goal must be to ensure we have in place those services in this country. In this regard, I am exploring a North-South dimension. We could seek to provide these facilities, which are specialist in terms of the needs of these children who often have behavioural and sexual problems and serious addictions to alcohol and drugs, on a North-South basis. We do use placements abroad. The number in this regard has varied considerably. Every effort is made to ensure that the services required are available in this country because, clearly, this is preferable. However, just as children with medical complications often need to go abroad to get a specialist service if not available here, for which the HSE pays, so, too, do these children in terms of treatment for emotional and sexual problems. The facilities they attend abroad are usually very specialist and experienced in working with young adolescents. Some of the outcomes from the work done by these services with these children have been very good. Families have been very satisfied and the young people have gone on to do well.

We are increasing placement numbers. Waiting times vary considerably. The waiting list can sometimes be cleared following referral to services by the courts, as in the case of the referrals to Oberstown, the reason for which were not quite clear. The waiting list then reduced and beds became available. The Senator will have seen how the publicity waxed and waned in relation to the demand for those beds. This is an area which Gordon Jeyes and his team are paying a lot of attention to and are treating seriously. As I stated, a national therapeutic team has been appointed and the waiting list, which as stated earlier varies from time to time, is being managed as well as possible. I am and will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that those children most in need of the service get it, although much is dependent on the placement they are already in. Where serious concern is expressed in regard to a particular child being required to be moved to special care, this is done as quickly as possible in all circumstances.