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

No decision has been taken, and I certainly value the local input from the VECs.

Deputy Troy asked some questions as well. The referendum timeframe depends on the courts, so I cannot comment on that. I do not know what the timeframe will be. With regard to the child death report, a range of actions have been taken on implementing the recommendations of that report. I will ensure that what I said at the time regarding independence and independent monitoring of the process will be in place. I have had discussions with a number of people about that. I have met with Helen Buckley. Interestingly, the work that she does on independent child death review was not mentioned in that report, but everybody would agree that it is totally independent, very valuable and there is much to be learned by the HSE from her reports. I am very conscious of building in an independent mechanism and I have had discussions with the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, about that. I will bring the mechanism forward shortly. I also presented the work that has been done regarding child death to the Cabinet sub-committee this week. The agency was also discussed at that sub-committee and the work was presented to the Taoiseach and the sub-committee to outline the progress.

Deputy Ó Caoláin's questions focused a great deal on the agency. There was no hidden agenda in the change of name. It was very much to do with it being a shorter and easier title, and it focused on child and family. It was as simple as that. There was no hidden agenda. I assure the committee there are no implications regarding the role of early intervention or family support. The Deputy asked again about the timeframe and referred to the local meeting he attended. Obviously, the HSE is operating on the Estimates it has. They are in place for the end of the year, but no decision has been taken about the date. In fact, this arose at the Cabinet sub-committee this week. There is no decision on setting a time and the reason is that I want to see how the legislation proceeds in the Dáil and the timeframe for that. I cannot predict precisely how long it will take in the Dáil and Seanad before completion.

There are a number of other issues and I will ask Jim Breslin to give a quick summary of some of the issues that will determine the timeframe of the actual establishment. However, I have highlighted that the separation is in place at present with regard to the services. The finances have been separated and the shadow agency is in place. This week there is an advertisement for two positions that were not filled on the last occasion. On the Deputy's question about board members and public services, that will be up next week.