Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are nine petitions for consideration so we will go straight into them. The first petition is No. 35 of 2022, "Amend Child Care Act 1991 to provide HIQA with the necessary powers to sanction Tusla, Child and Family Agency when it fails to meet its statutory obligations”. This has been submitted by the Alliance of Birth Mothers Campaigning for Justice, known as ABC. ABC is requesting that the committee initiate the necessary steps to amend the Child Care Act 1991, as amended in 2011, to provide HIQA with powers to sanction Tusla when it fails to meet its statutory obligations. ABC is Ireland’s leading advocacy group for birth mothers whose children have been taken into State care by Tusla. The recommendation on this is that the correspondence from the Ombudsman for Children be forwarded to the petitioner for information. Do committee members have any views on that?