Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

I share the Deputy's concerns. It has been a real concern since this started to unfold and throughout the look-back process. I have been chairing those meetings weekly. Last Friday, I met with a group representing the families. It was a hugely constructive meeting from my perspective. I hope it was of support and benefit to them. It is one of many and we will continue to work with them on this.

To answer the Deputy's direct question on the children affected who need further supports, we will be setting up a clinical support liaison team who will work with individual families and the individuals themselves, if they wish to do so. I will be writing to the families involved about that. This team will work with them as key workers to support them and advocate on their behalf with regard to services and will ensure, where it is at all possible, that we provide them with those services in a timely manner. That is an important piece and I made that commitment to the representative group we met last Friday. I hope to write to the families on it later this week.

The Deputy also raised the oversight regarding what happened and why it went on for so long. Dr. Maskey's report looks at that in great detail. We heard earlier that the supervision of the NCHD was more for the NCHD to take up rather than it being a necessity for the person to do so. That was a key issue and there are huge learnings in that for all services. The children concerned will continue to be our focus. They will continue to be at the centre of this and we will continue to work with them through the clinical support team, which will be place from Monday next. That will ensure we can match them to the right services and, where at all possible, provide those services to them.