Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I did not get the chance to address a number of points. With regard to Question No. 13, regarding national high support units, I understand residents are not placed there under a detention order and that these are not locked units. There are only two of them and one is in my constituency. I visited it in the early stages and welcomed its location, but there have been a series of worrying incidents associated with the cohort of residents at any particular time.

I am concerned about that, as are people in the community. At one point, there were two functioning hotels in the host town but there is now only one because the other was burned to the ground and the court case is there to show from where the hand responsible had come.

I came across the most worrying situation which triggered me to ask the question. A parent came to me in great distress because her daughter - remember these are children - was inebriated in the middle of the day in a neighbouring town where her sibling had met her, and it is by court order or parental agreement that people are placed within these high support units. These are not small matters. In that instance, the distress of the mother, who is the only parent, was serious and very understandable. I am obliged to refer these to the Minister and to bring her attention to them. I do not know what the answer might be but there are issues in regard to the care regime and, in particular, unsupervised time out.

In regard to Question No. 15, the numbers and nature of deaths of children in State care, a very worrying issue, which we have addressed at a number of fora in the recent past, is the increasing incidence of suicide. Looking at the comparative figures - I asked for them having a good sense of what they would expose - in 2011 and 2012, we saw a 200% increase of suicide among children in State care. Of the profile of cases in 2011, 20% of children were suicides and it had risen to 39% of the deaths of children in care last year. It is a hugely worrying indicator. We know suicide has been on the increase across the board but in regard to children in State care, there must be something seriously in need of address given the statistics the Minister shared in response to Question N0. 15.

We are currently reading in the national media about a very serious situation in regard to child sex abuse. We cannot but ask the Minister to take on board that there is considerable concern. We are talking about a deceased former Irish language enthusiast. From all the information I have, Commissioner Callinan has ordered a review of the previous investigations. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, has ordered a review of knowledge of the crimes in the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. These are all looking at themselves and at what they knew and what they did or, most importantly, did not do. This is hugely important. Parents of young people-----