Ms Frances Byrne:

I thank Deputy Funchion. Early Childhood Ireland entirely agrees with her on this. We are active members of the Children's Rights Alliance and Deputies will be aware that this is of grave concern to organisations that are about and focused on children.

To go back to the Deputy's earlier point, children have been invisible and voiceless although hugely impacted by Covid-19. For example, we have seen shops stopping single adults coming in with children and so on. Other colleagues have noted this but our position is that the resources the Department has made available to the sector, parents and staff in the last few weeks in order to prepare are very welcome. Much more is to come and all the organisations here today are involved in helping with those resources. They are absolutely invaluable and are an important dimension of the consultation that has gone on.

In the context of all of this, the idea that the Department of Children and Youth Affairs would not stand alone, would not be untouched and would not have a full Minister is unthinkable. It sends out a very bad signal and it should not happen. We entirely agree with Deputy Funchion on that.