Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will reiterate my colleague, Senator van Turnhout's comments on yesterday's launch. It was good to see the Minister, as the first Minister for children, with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. The document puts children first. We discussed it for years but did nothing. Speaking as a former school principal, if a complaint was received, the principal was in a grey area and did not really know what to do. He or she would report, but no one would ever respond and the principal would not know whether the complaint was in the ether, whether it had been handled, whether a follow-up call to the health board needed to be made, etc. I am glad that Children First has been put on a statutory basis.

A question about sanctions was asked of the Minister. Am I correct in believing that the Bill is to be taken in tandem with a suite of legislation, for example, the withholding of information Act and the national vetting Bill? If so, it should not be read as stand-alone legislation. Committee members need to understand this instead of taking away with them only half the story.

I wish to raise the matter of preschool and early education. The St. Nicholas montessori group is responding, speaking with its staff members, examining issues of quality and considering what should be delivered in preschool classrooms. Work is being done on the ground. Those involved are taking the matter seriously. I attended a conference at which I was to give the keynote speech. Everyone in attendance was serious about how to deliver the best quality service. I am glad that not only the children's physical environments will be inspected. Rather, we are discussing the quality of the learning and teaching environments. As a school principal, I saw practices that were extremely worrying.

Children were learning to write before they could properly hold a pen.

On parenting, I also attended a conference on childhood obesity from which I learned a great deal, including at what age a child should be weaned and so on. As a woman who has reared children and a former school principal, I thought I knew it all. Much of the information parents require is not freely available to them. This means they often find it difficult to do the right thing. I have never in my 30 years dealing with parents met a parent who did not want to do the best for his or her child. While they might not always have reached the standard they wished to reach, they always strived to do so.

I believe the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, is doing a good job. I welcome the opportunity provided by the Minister's attendance at these meetings to ask questions. On the adoption (information and tracing) Bill, the Minister is well aware that people want this progressed quickly. On vetting, I have tabled numerous questions on this matter to the Minister for Justice and Equality. I have previously discussed the difficulties being experienced by adoptive parents in the context of the Hague Convention. Perhaps for the benefit of members of this committee who are not aware of the issues in this regard the Minister would set out the reason the process is not as easy as it appears.