Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On my behalf and on behalf of Deputy Ciara Conway, who is the Vice Chairman of the committee and who specifically asked me to say so, I welcome Ms Gibbons to the meeting following her appointment. Like many people on the committee I have had a good deal of experience dealing with children. I was a teacher before I was elected to this establishment. One thing that frustrated me in my years teaching was that when the school staff became aware of inadequacies in various family homes we did not necessarily believe that adequate services were available to deal with the problems. As Deputy Catherine Byrne remarked, these difficulties may have included problems with alcohol and the resultant impact on children, or neglect.

I appreciate the fact that Ms Gibbons is impatient and I get the message. Perhaps Ms Gibbons will confirm whether I understood her correctly, but I took it that she intends to fight tooth and nail to try to ensure that all services will be as effective as possible. One problem relates to after-hours interventions. Often, the worst problems arise after hours. I am unsure whether Ms Gibbons can say anything about how such issues could be addressed. I was directly involved in one or two cases and I cannot say that I was happy with how some of the social services handled them.

Deputy Catherine Byrne raised the issue of the number of inexperienced single parents. I am well aware of the fact that many of those single mothers do a great job, but clearly there are some who find it very difficult to cope. Is there a need for the State or some agency to try to encourage people not to have children until they have a settled situation? To what extent does Ms Gibbons believe that problems in childhood are tied up with dysfunctional family situations? How can we best get away from those dysfunctional family situations?