Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was looking forward to hearing Dr. Shannon's presentation. I am delighted he is on the side of children. He has swept away the politics and engaged in straight talking in claiming the independence of his office. He has been very strong on that and about not being influenced.

We have been comprehensively dealing with a Public Health (Alcohol) Bill in the Seanad. I regret that the former Minister of State is no longer in her former position. She was very purposeful in brushing aside any vested interest that lobbied and was seen to try to dilute that Bill and its potency for children and their parents. Alcohol is a leading cause of dysfunction and mental ill-heath in our country and that affects our children from pre-birth and infancy and upwards.

We discussed mental health earlier and Senator Freeman made a presentation on it. Our lack of mental health services is a child protection issue. We are woeful in what we are doing in that area. We are trying to kick-start the process and get something done immediately to protect our children because it is a child protection issue.

Representatives of Tusla appeared before the committee last week. The culture in that agency is one of defensiveness but we need to get beyond that. There are reasons for it being defensive but that agency is the foundation of in terms of where our children are at in this State and looking after them, making sure we can embrace that and can nurture them. Tusla is not doing that. I put it to one of its representatives that the agency is not fit for purpose. We need to promote it, encourage it, and bring it up to the level where our children are adequately embraced and looked after.

Childhood is limited and we need to recognise that every slow step of politics and legislation condemns more children to an adulthood or young adulthood of broken promises that we have not kept. We need to be more immediate and be seen to be more immediate.

Dr. Shannon alluded to the reference to equality in the Proclamation of 101 years ago. I always allude to the pursuit of happiness of every child. Some of the children Dr. Shannon has dealt with and some who I have dealt with professionally have never known the concept of happiness. That is an emotional feeling. What is happiness? Children should own happiness every day. Yet, every day some of the children we deal with do not know that concept or what it means.

Will Dr. Shannon talk about co-location in a practical sense? How does he envisage it in the Garda station or wherever the co-location happens? Where does Dr. Shannon envisage it? Who does he envisage being involved? Is it going to be overly bureaucratic? Are we going to try to simplify it in the interests of expediency, ticking the boxes and ensuring that we do the right thing? We will always take risks in making decisions. We are adults but we do not know every answer to every question. A duty of care to the mental and physical well-being of children will guide us in everything we do. I thank Dr. Shannon and I am delighted that he is on the side of our children.