Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. During the past two days we heard presentations from various groups who have an involvement with and a good understanding of our most vulnerable in society. I would like to pick up on two points. A representative of Empowering People in Care, EPIC - I cannot remember the gentleman's name -spoke about the role of the advocate. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children endorsed and echoed what he said, namely, that a relationship is sometimes built up between the children and the advocate. The role of the guardian ad litem is to inform the court while the role of the advocate is to be the voice of the child. While there are two voices in term of those roles, they possibly have two different levels of engagement, with one being at the level of the Courts Service when a child is in a court environment. I do not know if the role of the advocate is set out in the Bill. What does the Minister envisage to be the role of the advocate, if, for example, a court decides there is no need for a guardian ad litem to be appointed? It is at that point that the role of the advocate would be involved?

I wish to ask an awkward question. All the groups who came before us expressed the wish that the service would not be part of Tusla and they made strong representations in that respect. They also expressed the wish that Tusla would not be funding mechanism for the service or have overarching responsibility for it. Tusla is tasked with recruiting our social care workers. Its was formed to deal with child protection issues. Why have all the representatives who appeared before the committee in recent weeks said that they do not want Tusla involved in this service? I did not see its involvement in this service prior to today, but today it is clear it will be involved. Why has there been that shift? Why do we not have a belief that Tusla should be given that role? I know it is a difficult question but it is one that needs to be asked. It is tasked with role of protecting all children in our society. That is its role and it is the umbrella organisation in that respect.