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

I join my colleagues in once again welcoming Dr. Shannon for appearing before the committee. I thank him sincerely for the publication of his sixth report. His presentation here this afternoon was significant in itself, apart from the report. At the end one is moved to say “Wow!”. There is so much here. I will not try to deal with all the points I will simply try to tease out a few. Dr. Shannon poses a question about social workers which is very interesting in the current circumstances, namely, whether it is necessary to have a social worker appointed to every foster family while the child also has a social worker. Would Dr. Shannon like to elaborate a little on that? Does he think that would stand up? He puts it in the context of the resource constraints but would that have been his view, irrespective of these economically challenging times?

Deputy McLellan and I have just come from a meeting with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs about the Child and Family Agency Bill 2013 which will reach Report and Final Stages this week. We dealt with Committee Stage over the past couple of weeks here in this room. I tabled a few amendments, all of which were ruled out of order, because as a lowly Opposition Deputy I should not dare to suggest anything that might be a charge on the Exchequer. I am happy to note, however, that since Committee Stage, Cabinet has approved the introduction of legislation to provide for the statutory right to the preparation of an after-care plan.

Would Dr. Shannon view the phraseology of the Minister's statement on the Cabinet decision as indicative of fulfilling the case for which several of us have consistently argued, year on year? Can I read a statutory right to the preparation of a plan to mean a statutory right to after-care, where the need exists or where the child, now a young adult to be, over the age of 18, wishes? I would appreciate if Dr. Shannon could tease that out with me because we will engage with the Minister on this next Thursday. I want to be able to welcome it if it is exactly what I understand it is and I want to be able to withdraw my amendment, even though it will be disallowed but that is technical. I want to be positive. It is very important that Opposition voices are positive when the right decisions are being made. That is responsible politics and I want to be a party to that.

I commend the Vice Chairman of the committee for organising an event on cyberbullying, in the audio-visual room, which is no longer open to us for such events, but I am sure that collectively we will open that door too. Young people from Waterford presented such an impressive case that I want to commend them again here. I have raised the issue of bullying, not just cyberbullying, with schools and colleges.

There is an automatic defence immediately that is so obvious. Dr. Shannon rightly commended teachers earlier in his presentation as perhaps being even more important in identifying issues than a range of other people who engage in the life of a child but there is an almost automatic defence mechanism - it is not applicable across the board but it is still there - that in some way it is a reflection on the school. It is no such thing, and it requires a change on the part of people in education. I would like Mr. Shannon to comment on that.

I have a final brief question on Dr. Shannon's point about the voice of the child. We do not have a uniform system operating across this State. It is sporadic where it is being accepted, and there are other situations where the voice of the child is not considered at all. What is Dr. Shannon's view on how to get uniformity and ensure that the voice of the child is respected and taken on board in every situation across the land? I thank the Chairman for his forbearance.