James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to update the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children in its quarterly review of my Department’s work. The last occasion on which I met the committee for this purpose was 13 November 2014. Of course, I met a number of members on 3 February at a meeting of the select committee that considered the 2015 Revised Estimate for Vote 40 - Department of Children and Youth Affairs. We addressed a number of issues which will come before this committee today.

I hope the responses I have provided in reply to the written questions submitted by members in advance of this session will assist in their examination of the issues concerned. I expect members to have further questions for me. I noted the Chairman's comments on delays, which I will take up with the Department. I want members to have ample time to examine responses in order that they can formulate further questions. That is the purpose of the committee and I will seek to ensure it will not happen again.

I do not want to delay proceedings, given that the time available to the committee is limited. Therefore, I might briefly take the opportunity in my opening statement to mention some key developments in my Department since our last meeting in November 2014. I am very happy to be joined by Dr. Fergal Lynch who was recently appointed Secretary General of the Department; Mr. Dermot Ryan, assistant secretary; Ms Mary McLoughlin, acting director; Mr. Alan Savage and Ms Michele Clarke.

The 2015 Revised Estimate for Vote 40, as published in December 2014 by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, allocated gross funding to my Department of €1,026 million. This includes more than €991 million in current funding and €35 million in capital funding. When appropriation-in-aid receipts of just over €26.6 million are taken into account, the net current funding allocated to my Department in 2015 is €1 billion, an increase of €26 million on the equivalent figure for 2014. While operating within difficult budgetary constraints, the Government is strongly committed to delivering important reform and service developments to support children and families. I am committed to ensuring real reform of child welfare and protection services and making this country a better and safer place in which to be a child or young person.

The most significant part of my Vote - 64% - is to fund the services and programmes provided by the Child and Family Agency, Tusla. In 2015 the agency will have a budget of €643 million which includes more than €12 million in capital funding. This represents an increase of €34 million, or 5.6%, on the 2014 provision.

I met with the board of the agency in December 2014. We had a useful exchange of views on challenges and opportunities facing the agency in 2015. The agency has recently submitted to me its draft business plan for 2015 in response to the performance statement that I issued to the agency setting out overall priorities for 2015 in accordance with the process set out in the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. I intend to respond formally to Tusla very shortly.

I am pleased to confirm that there will be no reduction in the €50 million in funding for youth services in 2015, which was a key priority for me and for youth organisations. Furthermore, in December 2014, I announced capital grants for 50 youth projects and organisations throughout the country for small- to medium-scale equipment and upgrade projects. I would like to take the opportunity again to congratulate and thank all those who were involved in volunteerism in this sector. We could not deliver what we deliver without their enthusiasm and generosity.

The balance of funding in Vote 40, €383 million, relates to other programmes funded directly by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Of this, my Department will provide €260 million to support the child care sector to enable children and parents to access high-quality and affordable child care, with more than 100,000 children benefitting from support under these programmes. While I have been pleased that we managed to protect the significant investment in child care in very difficult economic circumstances, I would like to see increased investment in the sector as funding becomes available. Investment that is evidence-based and well considered can help support parents, improve the pay of staff and benefit children as well as having a positive impact on society and the economy. I met with the Association of Childhood Professionals last week and accepted a petition yesterday from groups campaigning for more investment in child care. We are in agreement about the importance of future investment. It is crucial that we develop a coherent whole-of-Government approach to investment in child care services. For this reason, I have established an interdepartmental group to look at provision right across the zero to six age group as well as to consider the after-school needs of older schoolgoing children. This new group will include representatives of the Departments of Education and Skills, Social Protection, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Public Expenditure and Reform, Finance and the Taoiseach, and will be led and supported by my Department. Preparatory work has already started and the first meeting of the group will take place next Wednesday. I am asking the group to report to me by the summer.

We have made significant progress towards the establishment of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes and certain related matters. In January 2015, the Government approved the draft order to establish the commission. I published the terms of reference and have since secured the approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas. Earlier this week, the Government agreed the order to be made by the Taoiseach. The issues to be investigated by this commission are by definition matters of significant public concern and expectation. I can assure the committee that my Department has engaged with Judge Yvonne Murphy, the chairperson designate, to ensure a smooth start to the commission’s work. The commission will be located at 73 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 4. Work is ongoing to provide the facilities, equipment and staff required to support an effective commission. I am now making arrangements to formally appoint the three nominated commissioners and will shortly announce the formal establishment of the commission.

We are progressing the priority items on our legislative programme and I am determined to push ahead with this important programme of work. I hope shortly to seek Government approval to bring theChildren First Bill 2014to Committee Stage in the Dáil and intend to seek the enactment of that legislation shortly thereafter. While I am not yet in a position to share details of proposed Committee Stage amendments, I can assure the committee that they will not affect the general thrust of the Bill as published. I can also assure the committee that, in recognition of the fact that this legislation will introduce new statutory obligations, the commencement date will be scheduled to ensure that the range of sectors involved have adequate time to prepare for implementation.

The committee will be aware that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, recently published the Children and Family Relationships Bill 2014. My Department had considerable involvement in matters relating to guardianship and adoption issues being addressed in the Bill. This is complex legislation, and the Minister pointed out that there have been significant changes in the period since the publication of the general scheme of the Bill in 2014. There have been extensive consultations between officials of my Department and the Department of Justice and Equality, in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General. There have also been detailed consultations involving the Child and Family Agency and the Adoption Authority. The Bill, when enacted, will address the needs of children living in diverse families. It will provide for parentage, guardianship, custody and access across a range of family circumstances that are not addressed adequately in current law. From my own perspective, I welcome the provisions for same-sex couples to be eligible to apply to adopt jointly in specified circumstances. I worked closely with the Minister for Justice and Equality on this important issue.

In December 2014, the Supreme Court concluded its hearings of the appeals against the outcome of the referendum on children’s rights which was conducted in 2012. The judgment of the court is awaited.

Work on the development of the heads of the adoption (information and tracing) Bill is at an advanced stage in my Department. This Bill will, for the first time in the history of the State, give adopted people a statutory right to certain information related to their adoption and the right to request the State to trace their birth parents, and will give people who have placed a child for adoption the right to trace that child. The Bill will put the adoption information register on a statutory basis. It will also provide for the safeguarding of all adoption records. I am aware that the Bill initiated by Senators Power, van Turnhout and Healy Eames advanced in the Seanad this week. I have not sought to oppose the Bill because I believe it is well motivated and have no difficulty with their initiative. However, I think it will encounter constitutional complexities in the area of private rights. I believe the general scheme of the Bill that I will submit for Government approval will address these issues in a comprehensive way.

Thechildren (amendment) Billwill update the legal framework for the detention of children, including the amalgamation of the three existing child detention schools. This will coincide with the completion of the national child detention facility project that is under way at Oberstown in Lusk, County Dublin. We have provided a further €13.5 million in capital investment in the Estimates for 2015 towards the completion of this project. It will see an end to the detention of children in adult prisons, delivering on a commitment in the programme for Government. I am committed to working with the board of management and with the campus management to ensure that the current change programme in the child detention school system is completed successfully.

The committee will be aware that earlier this week President Higgins appointed a new Ombudsman for Children. Dr. Niall Muldoon was selected as the most suitable candidate for the position following an independent rigorous recruitment and selection process conducted by the Public Appointments Service. I want to thank the children who participated at various stages of the recruitment process. This is possibly a unique feature in public service recruitment in this country, but I am convinced that these children made a valuable contribution to the selection of the best candidate for the job. I want to thank members of this committee and their colleagues in both Houses for their contributions to the debates relating to the resolutions passed in the Dáil on 11 February and in the Seanad on 12 February giving unanimous support to the nomination of Dr. Muldoon for appointment by the President to this important role in Irish public service. I wish him every success in his endeavours.

One of the most enjoyable events that I have attended since our last meeting was the Comhairle na nÓg National Showcase in Croke Park on 20 November 2014. I know that this committee met in Croke Park on that day, and perhaps some members share my view of the event. Five hundred young people aged 12 to 17 from Comhairle na nÓg from all over Ireland celebrated the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNCRC, in the company of the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. It truly was a celebration. They discussed the opportunities and challenges they experience in having their opinions heard and respected on a range of issues that affect their lives. Themes covered included transport and travel, life at home, health and well-being, education and school, community and facilities, social life and "Just being myself". While we might come together to debate and argue over various issues in this forum, I hope we can all agree that an event such as the Comhairle na nÓg showcase gives great cause for optimism for the future of Ireland when we see the energy and potential in our young people. I would like to reiterate what I said on the day - that I feel very secure in the future of this country knowing it is going to be in the hands of these young people.

In talking about how I have been most impressed by groups of children, I must also mention the group Teenagers and Children Talking in Care, TACTIC.

The members of TACTIC presented the output of their work on 17 December last in Dublin Castle. This was the same event at which Tusla published its new Alternative Care Practice Handbook.

These young people spoke movingly about what was good and what was hard about the experience of being in care. They had drawn on their own experiences to help create a series of guidebooks for young people, and a storybook for younger children, going into care. The purpose of the documents is to reassure children and young people when they first enter the care system, and provide them with information about how they can have a voice in the decisions made about their own care. The TACTIC group have worked closely with my Department and with Tusla to develop these resources, which are now available to every child and young person entering our care system.

I was truly in awe of these youngsters, with the confidence and courage they displayed in speaking openly about such a difficult and personal topic. We have a lot to learn from listening to children, really listening, not just in a tokenistic way, to hear what they have to say about the decisions we make that impact on their lives.

I believe their ability to input into the system is critical to the decision we make. We need to empower them at every opportunity to have their voices heard. These young people on that day proved the value of that. Having talked about the need to listen, I am very pleased to listen to members.