Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is way too high and the impact is immeasurable. It is not just the here and now and it is not simply a matter of bringing in regulators to hubs. That might make things better. Introducing regulators to workhouses in the 1840s would have made life a little bit better for people, but what we actually needed was for those workhouses to close down. People should not be in emergency accommodation. Some 80 families are in hotels as of June. People are in hubs. The damage to children is immeasurable and the scale of the trauma those children are facing, now and in their futures, is not properly understood. Therefore I sincerely ask the Minister, his Department and other Departments to understand the impact. If he does not have sufficient data he should commission it. This should not happen to children today. It should never again happen to such a large group of children in our State. I would really like the Minister to give me a sense that he understands. Maybe the numbers are going down, but they are far too high and the damage is far too great. I do not believe the response is adequate to the scale of the trauma those families are experiencing. I would like to be reassured by the Minister's words.