Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and it is great to see him here. There is much talk during Cabinet reshuffles of promotions, demotions or whatever but this is a dream job. The Minister has an opportunity to take a strong step to make Ireland one of the best places in which to be a child, to grow up and to transition into adulthood. There is a saying that third time is a charm and as this is the third Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in the present Administration, the Minister hopefully is sure to succeed and that it really is a charm. There is a long list of issues in respect of children and young people and I stress the point to the Minister that very often, one forgets about young people in this portfolio. While there is a long list, today I will only concentrate on a few areas based on the questions I had submitted.
However, I certainly will be happy to engage with the Minister and his officials on how to ensure we are not simply firefighting. Obviously, we must ensure the well-being of those particularly vulnerable children who are in crisis but we must also ensure the foundation blocks are in place and that there is early intervention and prevention. In the context of early intervention and prevention, sometimes people immediately think of toddlers and babies but they must be considered at all stages in a child's life. Were one to read the national review panel reports published yesterday, this can be seen to be true. I refer in particular to the case of "Luke", for whom this can be seen so many times during his life. The report stated "the high threshold for tolerance by the HSE of information concerning child neglect for the first nine years of Luke's life" was unacceptable. Tragically, he died at the age of 19 and for me, this is an area about which we must be very concerned. The review panel reports have shown that quite a lot of agencies are involved and quite a considerable amount of resources are involved in a child's life on behalf of the State. The difficulty, again and again, is these resources are not connected. All too often, children are failed because by the time a social worker identifies that X resources are needed for a child and by the time the resource in question becomes available, that child's life has moved on and the resource no longer is the appropriate resource for the child and therefore, it fails again. Ultimately, however, it is the child who really is failed. I will echo my request regarding the issue of the national review panel reports. The former Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, had agreed to it and consequently, I am surprised that members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children did not get advance notice of the reports and did not receive them. Although I awoke yesterday to read about it in The Irish Times, I believe the Oireachtas has a role in examining and scrutinising these reports.
Part of my question No. 15 pertained to the Child and Family Agency and this hits at the issue of the provision of resources because during the passage of the Act, Members were told of the 4,000 staff the new agency would have. This is true as if one looks at a headcount, the agency has a staff of 3,942. In reality, however, when one considers the number of full-time equivalents, the number of staff is 3,483.76. This shows to me that at present, the agency does not have the resources to make it succeed. I also have had concerns about out-of-hours services, as well as the resources that are outside the agency but which are so critical to its success such as the child and adolescent mental health services. Moreover, if one studies the review panel reports published yesterday, public health nurses also play a vital role. Many, albeit not all, asked to be transferred over but yet were not. How can one be sure that such joined-up working is succeeding? I had difficulty in this regard even during the passage of the Act and while I acknowledge plans are being developed, I do not know how one will know the agency is succeeding. Is it by the number of children who die in care? Will it be like road accident statistics where the numbers rise and fall and where we will applaud ourselves when fewer children die in the care of the State in a particular year? Were that to be the case, it would be untenable. However, targets must be set and published. Although the head of the agency talks about accountability and transparency, yet I still have not had sight of clear targets that members of the joint committee can follow in order that they can know when they can appropriately applaud the agency and when they must state its performance is not good enough and more must happen. I believe there is an issue in respect of the provision of resources but often, that issue can mask problems about implementation and consequently, this is an issue that must be examined.
As for question No. 13 that I asked on direct provision, I welcome the response and acknowledge that the former Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, met the Seanad cross-party group headed by Senator Ó Clochartaigh and myself. However, one agreement we had with the Minister at that time but on which no action has been taken was for the Department to commission internally a report on the needs of children in direct provision. This would be in line with the proposal by the special rapporteur on child protection, Mr. Geoffrey Shannon, who suggested there should be a report to examine whether the system itself is detrimental to the welfare and development of children and, if appropriate, whether the adoption of an alternative form of support and accommodation would be more suitable for families and for children in particular. I ask the Minister to give consideration to drawing up that report. I believe that is the role for the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. Obviously, direct provision falls under the remit of the Minister for Justice and Equality but the children in direct provision cannot be ignored and I have concerns regarding welfare and protection that I have raised previously.
Finally, with regard to question No. 14, I welcome the Minister's openness about looking at the definitions of children at risk and vulnerable groups. We must ensure that we are inclusive and that as many children as possible are included. This brings me to agreeing wholeheartedly with Deputy Ó Caoláin on the mother and baby homes and similar institutions, both about the investigation itself and the need regarding the right to identity in respect of information and tracing for adoption. One regret I have on this issue is while there obviously is an historic dimension that must be addressed, a child being adopted even today in Ireland will not have a right to his or her identity. The importance of the right to identity is known and we know the past must be redressed. Surely, however, one should seek to make the system of adoption more open in order that children who are being adopted today will have this right. That would be one way to show we are learning about the past and are making remedy and redressing that. I reiterate I have a long list but these are the issues on which I wish to focus today.