Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Muldoon in general for the work he does as well as for his presentation and for making it so user friendly. It was a main aim that it should be so. On the fact that the highest number of complaints the ombudsman dealt with were in the education area, could he elaborate on what those were? He mentioned admissions to schools and counselling, but I wonder if a lot of complaints related to access to services for children with learning difficulties also. What kind of complaints were made in relation to the family agency? I do not know whether the ombudsman has read the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill which was published recently. If so, does he consider that it addresses some of the issues around getting into schools, albeit it does not address the religious issue?

I share Deputy Anne Rabbitte's concern about children in direct provision. I have also visited a family who were all in one room with the children doing their homework sitting on the bed. There was no space. There were recommendations on direct provision, which is an area where children's welfare issues need to be addressed. There is also an issue around children who are in hotels and hostels because their families are homeless. I welcome some of the measures that were announced yesterday with regard to transportation and ensuring that those children have access to school completion programmes as well as to school, preschool and crèches themselves. The measures are designed to remove barriers, but there is still a lot of concern around those children.

I want to go through the ombudsman's three objectives and ask a few questions around those. In the beginning of the ombudsman's report, he refers to the report of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child from February 2016. There are some issues to be addressed in that regard. As such, what is the ombudsman's role in ensuring that those issues are addressed by the various agencies and Departments? In that context, many of the actions set out have to do with public organisations. In his first action, the ombudsman talks about strengthening understanding among public organisations of the importance of respecting and promoting children's rights. In the second, he refers to supporting capacity building among relevant public organisations. A lot of the actions relate to public organisations, including being able to issue apologies, which would make things easier where complaints need to be resolved. Can the ombudsman comment on whether he is getting a positive response from public organisations and whether it is difficult to implement his objectives with them?

The very last point on the page of the report setting out the objectives refers to child protection services. Clearly, there has been concern for a long time about adequate numbers of social workers and so on. While there has been some progress in that regard, the ombudsman might comment on the issue. Added to that is the question of whether the systems in place to ensure that the voices of children are heard in the context of legal services and the courts are working, in particular in family law cases. Can their voices be heard adequately in those kinds of situations? Finally, are there any specific measures in relation to social and digital media of which we should be made aware?