Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am conscious we only have seven or eight minutes left so I ask members to take the last two sections together. I ask the Minister to comment on an issue we discussed earlier this morning with Barnardos relating to the pre-legislative scrutiny of the guardian ad litemBill. The cost of the guardian ad litemsystem has attracted much negative media comment recently. In my 12 years in public life, I found reading the figures in a Sunday newspaper most staggering. I am open to being corrected on them. The Ombudsman for Children's office costs us approximately €2 million per year and we can see the amount of services and support it provides to children across the State. The guardian ad litemsystem would cost €15 million or €16 million to give a small number of children a voice in court. I am not downplaying that but in our earlier conversation, we noted the dearth of services available for children in State care, such as speech and language therapy, psychological services and early trauma intervention because the finance is unavailable. I find it staggering we can afford €16 million to give them a voice in court, notwithstanding the value of that. Will the Minister comment on it?