Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, there is a significant lesson to be learned from the way this has been handled from 1991 to date. The absence, according to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, of access to key data means the demand for the service cannot be estimated. We are talking about extending it to a wider group as part of the legislation. We compare unfavourably to other jurisdictions. If one looks at new institutional arrangements which we introduce in this country, one sees that we are very poor at it. We do not take the evidence-based approach, which is the way things work in other countries. In terms of the points Deputy Catherine Connolly has been making about pre-empting institutional design, the Department is behind the curve in terms of scenario-testing and what might be good institutional arrangements into the future given the experience of the past.

The Secretary General in his statement said the new service would be established over time and that other options can be examined as appropriate including, for example, establishing it within a proposed family court system or as a separate public body or placing it within an existing statutory structure. I would have thought at this point that the Department would have looked at those scenarios and determined a favoured approach. It appears that the Department is going to approach it in a way that is not ideal by virtue of the fact that it is not clear about the system it is designing. We could be back here in five years' time talking about the very same issue at the Committee of Public Accounts of value for money in respect of what is a very small amount of money that has to be spent. The money we spend on children is not a lot anyway but we could be back talking about the same thing if this design is not right from the word go or if there is not at least a lead in towards something that is the ideal. It does not strike me that the Department is ahead of the curve on that.