Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is very interesting. Snapchat and Instagram are going to be invited to the committee and we will, hopefully, get to put a lot of questions to them. On awareness, I regularly point out that school journals are under-used to provide children with an idea of their rights. One does not want them all marching up and down on strike over everything that might be listed in the journal, but it would certainly raise awareness of rights. It would be a simple tool to use if schools got on board.

I am delighted that we have had an Ombudsman for Children in this country for 14 years now. We are eventually catching up with what children are privileged to have in other countries. It is not a privilege, it is just a default position for them.

I wanted to ask about the mental health of our children in care and about the nature of the mental health complaints. Senator Joan Freeman and myself were on the Seanad Public Consultation Committee. Are the complaints similar to what we heard there about access, continuity of care and time? Are the complaints similar to that or is there anything unique in what children are putting forward to the ombudsman? Is the number of complaints rising? I would imagine it is because of the demand on services. Does Dr. Muldoon agree that any such rise is because of demand on services or is it just because of particular people falling through the cracks?

My other question was on disability. Some 8% of children in care have a severe or moderate disability. Does Dr. Muldoon have an idea of the timeline for the review which the HSE and Tusla have agreed to so we can all have a look at it? I am delighted that Dr. Muldoon raised the issue of direct provision. It has been referred to in the past. It was established 20 years ago. Children have been born and raised in that system. It has been described as State-sanctioned child poverty and exclusion. Those in the system now have the same access to the Ombudsman for Children for complaints. On his visits and his travels throughout the country, did he speak to children directly? The children who are probably most at risk are the children who are here alone and have no family around them. Would he have had contact with them as well?