Ms Bríd Carroll:

The stories are endless. Each of us here works very much in conjunction with each other. The vice chairman of our committee and I support Jack and Jill regarding the counselling children and parents need when they are going through these horrendous days. We also work with LauraLynn in terms of conferences and putting in the information.

I was asked what is my evidence that there are no standards for bereavement care in Ireland. I conducted an audit in 2010 on childhood bereavement services and it is quite blatant. I know from practice that there are no standards because there has never been a body to set up those standards. In their absence we look to the UK standards. We collaborate with the UK Childhood Bereavement Network. Ms Alison Penny, the co-ordinator of that network, was at our last monthly meeting and we work together because we do not need to reinvent the wheel. It is there. We need to take the best practice from it. We do not have to fall into the pitfalls because somebody has done it already. The UK Childhood Bereavement Network has been in existence for ten years.

Our service has been available for only six months, but with the help of every member of the advisory committee, we have constructed a resource website which will be live in the coming weeks. We are working in conjunction with European networks. At the end of September two of us attended the inaugural meeting of the European Family Bereavement Network at the Leuven Institute where we met representatives of other child bereavement networks from Germany and other countries. We intend to work with the information we have gathered internationally.

We believe the best bereavement care empowers the natural support networks of the child to support him or her. Two of our members are working on the issue of e-learning for teachers in schools in conjunction with the All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care. The Irish Hospice Foundation has been mentioned many times and it takes the lead in palliative care at every level. We must follow its lead with our vision. The Irish Childhood Bereavement Network is an advocate and we are delighted to be here on behalf of children to let the committee know how difficult it is for parents and children who are bereaved and going through the stages of palliative care. We want the committee to come on board in whatever way it sees fit to promote and support us in all of the work we do.