Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Chair.

Dr. O'Dwyer and Mr. Chance are very welcome and I thank them for the presentation and the information they have given us. I was very interested to hear their call for new national child policy, but also interested to hear their point that we need to have an emphasis on practical steps to be taken.

I have a few questions. First, they referred to the need for and the importance of Sláintecare, the importance of universal provision of healthcare and of screening for children's welfare and well-being. Will they say a little bit more about how that would look on the ground? For example, how would we screen children, how would public health nurses be assigned and how could we address waiting lists for children in healthcare, which I know has been a hugely topical issue lately?

The Labour Party is also pressing for a universal provision of childcare, for a public, universal free of access childcare scheme, because of all the difficulties parents and families are having accessing childcare at present. The fees are high yet there are low wages for professionals working in the sector. Our childcare system is currently failing all of those involved, and obviously and notably children. Could Dr. O'Dwyer and Mr. Chance say a little more about how universalism might look in a childcare scheme?

Finally, I was very interested in the point that we need to balance crisis response and prevention in our strategies, and the call for the strategic use of national lottery funding, for example, to ensure a longer term approach. Could Dr. O'Dwyer and Mr. Chance say a little more about how that would look in practice, and which prevention and early intervention services are working and what is good practice model?

Finally, I refer the catch up for children fund. Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin and I have been promoting the need for a €100 million catch up for children fund to try to alleviate and address some of the huge adverse impacts on children as a result of the Covid pandemic. There may be a lot there, but they are few of the issues raised in the presentation.