Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Gibbons and I wish her every success in her new role. It is a major challenge. One thing I find is that there are people who are self-employed and who employ several people who complain about some things to do with the Government. Then, when I ask them how their management situation is, it emerges that they are having difficulty. They might have a staff of fewer than ten people. There is major challenge in managing 4,000 people and I wish Ms Gibbons every success in putting the structures together.

I wish to touch on the time Ms Gibbons spent working in the United Kingdom and the changes that occurred there. Let us look at it from an Irish point of view. At what stage does Ms Gibbons believe we are here? How much catching up have we to do? I am not suggesting we should use the UK as the example, but, from international point of view, how much catching up do we have to do? What timescale will be required?

The other area I wish to mention is that of the family law courts, an area in which I have had some experience. While there is no major issue with children in the sense of their not being properly looked after, they get caught up in the process of the family law courts. What is the nature of the involvement of social services in giving backup support to parents there? How does Ms Gibbons envisage that area improving? We have talked about setting up a new structure for the long-term in the family law courts and that is an important element that we need to see emerging.

We are undertaking a major and welcome change, but will the process of change be fast enough? I raise this question in particular because Ms Gibbons referred to coming back from the UK. A person I know who was working in medical services in the UK came back to Ireland. One thing that struck her while working in Dublin was the number of girls coming to maternity wards under 18 years of age. She was surprised that there was no specific service aimed at young people. She suggested at the time that there should be a specific clinic to deal with the group of people under 18 years of age. It was amazing that it took ten years for that clinic to be set up in the hospital in question. There was resistance to change. Ms Gibbons has referred to major changes in the setting up of the new structures. Does Ms Gibbons believe the support levels are in place to implement that change? Does she believe it will come fast enough? This relates to my earlier question about catching up. How long will that take?