Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I thank the Senator for her words. She highlighted the failure to focus on children and allocate resources for them. From our point of view, one of the recommendations that would go a long way would be the incorporation of the UNCRC. As a nation, moving in that direction should not be so scary because the Scottish Parliament is debating whether to do so this week. Our incorporation of the UNCRC would put children at the centre and be a step further than the constitutional referendum of 2012. That is something that the committee, as legislators, could think about moving forward on.

In terms of future work, we have had complaints relating to disability involving the adjustment and renovation of houses for children of certain ages and certain styles of problems. Again, that feeds into the concept that I mentioned. We know these children are going to need help and will need to have the doors in their homes widened. One of the greatest regrets that I have is still the story of a child who grew up immobile. By the age of 12, he was 6 ft 3 in. and his mother was still washing him in a kitchen because she could not carry him upstairs. Those kinds of things can be predicted, funded for and planned for across the board through intergovernmental, interagency and interdepartmental work. Certainly the housing need is crucial from that point of view, with disability being a criterion.

Forward planning is needed as the child moves into adulthood. Different services will deliberately avoid taking responsibility. I have seen situations where the HSE will allow a child to stay in a residential centre until he or she is 19 knowing that Tusla will not evict him or her, but that is playing Russian roulette with a child's life and not planning ahead. The same things applies to children who still live at home as they move from a child's service to an adult's service. That is about predictable transfer. The child's mental health and well-being, and the family's mental health and well-being, can be facilitated enormously by knowing from 16 years of age that we are planning for this, we know how it is going, we are ready to go and we know what will happen so the child has a real sense of progress.

It should not be beyond the wit of our services to provide that sort of thing, once there is a commitment to putting the child first.