Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to touch on the Plan for Places report. As Mr. Muldoon said, we already have the information we need. As public representatives, we have this information every year because we have a constituency dashboard. We have the Census information and can find out things like the average ages of children in east Cork, how many have a disability, how many children are in families, the age demographics and so on, so we can plan for school places. We can basically forecast what is going to happen and the emphasis needs to be placed on that.

The office of the Ombudsman for Children is vital, not only to this committee but to the wider public. We need forums like this to draw attention to the office because people do not know what it does. Mr. Muldoon said so many children have contacted his office which I am delighted to hear. Children do not get enough credit for how cute and smart they are. I am delighted to hear that. We can tell people that the door of the Ombudsman's office is open, the information is available on its website and if they feel they have a grievance, they should not be shy but should stand up for themselves.

The report is very thorough. It highlights some desperate cases across the spectrum but the outcomes have been very positive. Mr. Muldoon touched on disability but that is an issue for another day in terms of how services are not working. I just want to commend the office for all the work it has done. It has always been a pleasure to work with it.