Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. It is very fitting that he has signed the commencement order on human rights day. I know he did it purposely and it is really great. Ireland, with its common law basis, has done something that has pointed the way for many countries. The ripple effect will start. The fact that the Minister has signed the commencement order so quickly is welcome and I thank him and his officials for their co-operation. They made it happen.

I asked about the 24-hour out-of-hours service. It is great to see at long, long last that it has started. It is something we will all have to observe and monitor to see how access to services works. However, I welcome it. Deputy Troy asked about ICT. I agree that there appears to be an impasse at Department level. That is the understanding we got from Gordon Jeyes. It is now between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Health and that is where it stands. I would welcome the Minister's views. Where is it and is there something we should be doing as a committee? Similarly in relation to psychological services, which the Child and Family Agency has the statutory remit to provide, I am extremely concerned that the necessary staffing is not in place which is supposed to have been provided by the HSE. Again, it is an impasse. While it is an impasse, the difficulty is that children are at risk. I raise that with the Minister.

The issue of Oberstown was raised, and I thank the Minister for his response to the committee. We could probably have a separate session on the issue of children in detention. Of particular concern to the committee is the staffing level. According to our colleague, Deputy Ó Caoláin, who is paying attention to these aspects, there is a recruitment competition with a closing date for applications of today. However, the advertisement did not say how many staff were being recruited. It would be very useful for the committee to know. I do not expect the Minister to have the figures now, but perhaps we could be advised of them. We are still concerned about the following. I checked the figures on Monday and there were 13 17 year olds in Wheatfield Prison. We have not ended the detention of children in the prison system. We should be conscious of that. A separate issue I raised with the Minister for Justice and Equality and which also applies to the Minister is the need to get the daily occupancy and capacity figures within Oberstown. The reason I can give the Minister the Wheatfield figures is that the prison publishes its statistics every day, including the number of 17 year olds. If we could get them for Oberstown, it would be really useful. We are extremely concerned at the recent report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture published in November 2015. The report raised concerns about the excessive use of force and handcuffs at Oberstown, the use of lock-up, insufficient access to natural light, the austerity of the rooms, staff numbers and ratios and the need to photograph and report. As I said, that is a whole issue we could devote ourselves to as a committee.

I thank the Minister for all that he has done in the area of child care. We have seen significant strides in development. I have two specific questions on his announcements yesterday. He announced funding of €1.5 million for Learner Fund 4 to assist practitioners in early childhood care and education to upgrade their qualifications. Reading the announcements, my understanding is that the fund will assist one person per setting to gain a QQI or FETAC level 6 qualification in early childhood care and education. That is to help the settings to expand. However, there is a major diversity in the size of early childhood care and education settings and services nationally. I wonder, therefore, about limiting the funding to one staff member per setting, which may not give us the expansion the Department wants and the sector needs. Can the Minister clarify whether as part of that incremental approach, it is his intention in time to expand the learner fund to support those who want to gain a level 7 or 8 qualification? If settings are to expand and quality is to improve, level 7 qualified staff are needed to qualify for the higher capitation funding. I am concerned that settings are at risk of losing their higher capitation funding, which is unacceptable.

Deputy Troy raised the special rapporteur report. I have a question about the next report. Would the Minister consider asking the special rapporteur to conduct a review of legislation and reports to date and to provide guidance in a comprehensive report for incoming legislators to give them an overview of the existing law and proposed laws and where we should be looking to further strengthen children's rights? Another challenge for the future centres on legal fees. This is the next major issue for the Department to address. Is the Department going to publish a report so that we all understand the full scale of it? We all hear about the legal fees, but where are the real blocks and where it is happening? It the issue the reform of the GAL system? Where do we need to focus our attention? It is something I have not quite been able to identify. I would welcome the start of work to build us up in that regard.

I thank the Minister for all he has done. I give huge thanks personally for the constitutional amendment. There are issues ranging from transgender children to smoking in cars with children for which I thank him. I thank the Minister for furthering children's rights and welfare and I thank all the officials in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. It is a new Department although we will probably not be allowed to say that about it from now on. The Minister had to build up capacity and that has happened. In each moment in time, I will have a long list of things that need to be done. When one presses "pause" and looks at all that has been achieved in the past four and a half years, however, it is very significant. Congratulations must go to each one of the Minister's staff in the Department acting under his leadership and that of Dr. Fergal Lynch. I thank them all so much. I wish the Minister all the best in his future endeavours and I wish all my colleagues well in getting re-elected because we need to continue this work and the impetus, urgency and ambition we have for children in Ireland.