Ms Tanya Ward:

We have an engagement with the Minister for Education and Skills on the Home Works report. There was a Fianna Fáil-sponsored motion on it and we had discussions on the report with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone. We have had some good engagement with Tusla and the school completion programme under Noel Kelly. However, the key recommendations, in particular those to be led by the Department of Education and Skills, have not been implemented to date. Deputy Mitchell asked about solutions. The Leap card for the summer is a good solution which would help to reduce isolation. Geraldine Scanlon has discussed the need to use the provision of "July hours" to give schools the option of running programmes over the summer. That is because for the 1,000 families in emergency accommodation in particular the other issue is hunger. We do not have cooking facilities. While that is not something about which children think per se, one needs to think in terms of basics about the holiday hunger issues that will face children in the holiday period. Summer holidays are a drain for these families to try to get through and that needs to be addressed.

On mental health and well-being, this is being driven by the structural issues. Getting families into homes as soon as possible and reducing the amount of time in hubs and transitory accommodation is key. The reason for the time limit is to force the Government to build. That is one of the things we want to see. If there is a time limit, the Government must end the use of bed and breakfast homeless accommodation and get building. That is what we hope the time limit will do as it has had that effect in other countries. Looking at the best solutions around mental health and well-being for children in these types of situations, in-school support is one of the better approaches. Some children like to have psychological support outside, but most want it in the school. It is about making sure those schools dealing with higher numbers of children who are homeless have the right number of psychologists to work with them. It is about supporting schools with the toolkit and techniques on emotional wellbeing. Things children could be doing include stillness, mindfulness and practices like that to help them get through what they are dealing with. Those kinds of techniques would make a major difference. Another solution is to have services working with children in the family hubs to provide those kinds of support. It is about ensuring children have play and recreation facilities where they can be normal children and young people. These things could make a major difference to their mental health and wellbeing.