Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and her officials here today. I will start on a positive note and welcome the announcement of co-funding of almost €14 million from Atlantic Philanthropies. I congratulate the Minister and her officials on that, which is very positive news, although I was not aware of it until I read the opening brief last night. The Minister has embarked on a reform agenda since taking over the new Department in February 2011, and she knows that as an Opposition party we have been supportive of many of the measures embarked upon. My concern relates to the slow pace at which some reforms are progressing.

I will not rehash the matter, but last week I highlighted some of the areas in which the Minister has failed to meet targets set by herself. Perhaps the Minister can comment more comprehensively on the promised and pending legislation? This morning in the Dáil we asked about the information and tracing Bill and I would also like to know about the Children First legislation and, as the Chairman mentioned, the new child and family support agency legislation. Will the Minister give a more detailed and realistic timeframe for the enactment of these key pieces of legislation, which are all part of her reform agenda?

I will go through the various subheads of the Vote. There is a reduction of €1.6 million for the Family Support Agency and, digging further into the matter, in 2013 there is to be a reconfiguration of services for children and families. The word "reconfiguration" always worries me, as I find it is a new term for "cutback". This is an extremely important agency which does important work in supporting the vulnerable and more marginalised in our society. Will the Minister outline where she hopes the reconfiguration will take place?

I welcome the maintenance of €170 million for the universal free preschool year. Equal access is fine as long as the child does not have a disability or special needs, but if a child has particular requirements there is no real and true equal access, as it is down to the discretion of an individual preschool as to whether it can provide a service. Recently we witnessed a reduction in funding from the HSE to support assistants in these schools, and this document does not indicate how the Department is picking up the slack. Will the Minister refer to that point?

Last week the Minister announced funding of €2.75 million to improve child care facilities. Ms Teresa Heaney, the chief operations officer with Early Childhood Ireland, stated that this was not new funding but rather a rehash of a previous announcement. She has called for ring-fenced funding for training, mentoring and inspections. I notice from the document that approval has been sought and received for new posts associated with the new child and family support agency. We need those posts, and I do not dispute them, but nowhere in the document is there confirmation of the additional inspectors required on foot of the RTE exposé or of funding being put aside to ensure that each region without an inspector will get one, particularly in the case of children in child care facilities after September.

We had a very lengthy committee meeting on foot of the RTE exposé and, at the time, the Minister spoke of having eight objectives to reassure and restore the confidence of parents, which had been shattered by the investigation. She spoke about training, reform of inspections and tougher sanctions for breaches of regulations. I am disappointed because I thought the Minister might have alluded to these in her opening address, as the matter is extremely important. The Minister is probably aware that I produced a Bill to introduce tough sanctions for people who break regulations, so could I take the liberty of asking the Minister to comment on that today?

Under the child care programme, the community child care subvention will undergo a large decrease in 2013 from 2012. In light of the fact that increasing numbers of children are eligible for this scheme, does the Minister not believe the overall process must be reviewed? Is the scheme sustainable in its current form, as it seems to be questionable? I can speak about my own constituency in Westmeath and Longford. A group that wishes to provide a community child care facility in Moate, which currently has no such facility, is ineligible for the scheme as it stands. There is an inequity, as certain areas have no access to this scheme. Funding was reduced in the previous year, so will the Minister comment on that?

There seems to have been a substantial increase in miscellaneous legal fees, based on the 2012 figure. Why has that happened? Is it a result of the challenge to the children's referendum? I hope the answer is that the increase has its basis in the raft of legislation that will come from the Department when we return in September, but I am afraid the former might be answer.

In May, Judge Ann Ryan mentioned the lack of detention facilities. I acknowledge the positives first, in the form of the capital allocation to build the facility at Oberstown. I welcome that work, and Judge Ryan acknowledged that a long-term solution is in place. For the shorter term, however, there is nothing in the figures to alleviate the problem. There were 18 cases over three weeks in which authorities could not find a detention facility for children, and there was no option for repeat offenders except to let them out again, which is worrying. I hope the Minister will be able to bring us up to speed in that regard. There may have been a staffing issue, so the Minister might be able to address that.

There is a major reduction in the area of youth organisations and services. In May this year the National Economic and Social Council report entitled The Social Dimensions of the Crisis: The Evidence and its Implications indicated that young people are hardest hit by this crisis. On top of high levels of youth unemployment and emigration from Ireland, we have the fourth highest percentage among the 28 European member states - 18.4% of young people aged 15 to 24 years - not in education, employment or training, despite significant increased demand. Despite that, youth work services designed to support young people through the crisis have had their funding cut by 30% since 2008. I accept that part of this happened in the tenure of the previous Government, but that reduction has been maintained and increased in the lifetime of this Government.

I do not think it is right. I think this area should be protected because we are talking about retraining children and young people who badly need this service. I thank the Minister and her officials again for coming in this morning. I look forward to hearing the Minister's replies. I understand we will be able to ask supplementary questions in due course.