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

It has been a busy year. I acknowledge that a lot of good work has been done, in addition to a lot of good legislation being passed. Last week, we dealt with the Child Care (Amendment) Bill, which is very welcome. My only concern is that we need to provide resources to ensure that the after-care plans are implemented. I also welcome the Children First Bill. Senator van Turnhout got her amendment passed to remove the common law defence of "reasonable chastisement" in cases of corporal punishment, which is most welcome.

The adoption (tracing) Bill is progressing but will it come before the Houses before the end of this Dáil? Other welcome matters include the additional €17 million for children with disabilities, as well as extra budgetary funding for child care, particularly the second free pre-school year. My only concern is over capacity, an issue that has already been raised by Deputy Troy. There are concerns that sufficient places will not be available in certain areas around the country. Can the Minister guarantee that every child will be able to avail of a place for both years? Perhaps he cannot do so.

The question of social workers is of huge concern. I acknowledge the additional funding for 400 extra staff but can the Minister tell us how many of those will be social workers? I thank the Minister for his responses to questions I have tabled. As regards the answer to Question No. 7, it prompted another question about the Youth Work Act 2001. Does the Minister have any plans to review that legislation? It is now 14 years old and our economic and social situations have changed significantly since then.

Question No. 8 concerned refugee children. While the Minister's reply is reassuring, the question referred to all refugee children and not just those who are separated from their parents. I know that in future we will be taking children in from war-torn areas. All those children should be supported and funding should be made available regardless of whether they are separated from their parents.

I wanted to raise an issue with Tusla this morning but unfortunately I was not able to attend the meeting. Perhaps the Minister could indulge me in regard to one or two minor concerns I have. The first one is about reporting historical abuse cases and trying to get acknowledgements from Tusla with regard to receipt of queries, which we need.

There is a problem chasing it up. It can take up to two months even to get an acknowledgement. We are only reporting it - they are historical abuse cases - and we need to file that. It is something we are not working on, rather we are just waiting for the reply. It should be acknowledged as soon as it is received.

My office wrote to Tusla about an issue in September. When we did not hear anything back, we followed up with a phone call. It was actually my secretarial assistant who got on to a duty social worker. She stated that they did not take representations from Deputies and that they were only treated the same as any concerned citizen. She said an e-mail was not sufficient and that we would have to write to them. My secretary printed off the e-mail and posted it.