Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Shannon and I commend him on his comprehensive report. I apologise on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, who cannot be here this morning.

The reports states that "the best interests" were adopted in 2012. Has this changed the reality of the way the State agencies and the Judiciary actually work? I wish to raise the issue of direct provision, however the figures I have from the Department of Justice and Equality differ from those of Deputy Troy. According to these figures, 61 people living in direct provision have died since its establish in 2002 and of that number, 16 were young children under the age of five years. This is a shocking figure and raises fundamental questions about the suitability of direct provision for women and children. The Departments of Health, Children and Youth Affairs and Justice and Equality have much to answer and we need to have a serious debate on this issue in the House. Apart from the general issue of cooking facilities and facilities in general, I am concerned about young children and women living in close proximity to adults. Will we look back at direct provision in ten years' time and compare it with the mother and baby homes of a previous age? I believe that will be the case. Will Dr. Shannon outline his views on how we can address this serious issue?

Dr. Shannon mentioned the rights of the child to health services, with which we all agree. A significant issue arises for the parents of young children with disabilities. They have to fight tooth and nail to access basic services. I wish to pay particular attention to children who may have multiple disabilities. We have no cohesive pathway to services and parents are in a battle with a number of Departments to access services. I will not mention the Disability Act 2005 because as others have pointed out in respect to accessing services, we are constantly in breach of the Act. A lady who contacted me recently had a very premature baby, who survived. She highlighted that the State, at significant cost, helped her baby to progress to the age of two years but then she hit a brick wall because he needed numerous services. She had a consultation on the speech and language therapies he needed but was told that the service would not be available for nine months as the person was on maternity leave and nobody else was trained in that area. After all the effort made for such children to survive, no cohesive service is available for them. We need to try to progress services in a cohesive way so that parents can access all the services required. Parents find it very difficult to get an early diagnosis of autism. They face months waiting to get a diagnosis of the child's condition. We need to reduce the waiting period for a diagnosis because early intervention is so important.

In other jurisdictions the social workers dealing with child protection work from the police station and work hand-in-hand with police officers.

It is a very good way to work. It would not be practical in all areas of the country but in particular it could be used in city areas where cases are considered together. What are Dr. Shannon's views on that?

The Minister made comments last week about access to drugs on the part of children in care. HIQA issued a disturbing report about a residential unit for children in my constituency in Cork which stated that drug paraphernalia was discovered. The Minister said that this was not unique. What are Dr. Shannon's views on that?