Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The information and tracing Bill is at an advanced stage and we are close to heads going to Government. This is important legislation. There are some constitutional issues with regard to access to information, but I will go as far as I can in the legislation to ensure people who wish to trace are supported in doing that. I will also introduce strong legislation to ensure all records are gathered together in one place and to ensure people have proper access to them. Currently, records are scattered throughout the country, but ensuring they are available centrally will be part of the legislation. Work is under way to do this.

Deputy Ó Caoláin made the point that there was no room for complacency with regard to the children's referendum. I agree with him. He also pointed out that everyone has a role in ensuring the information gets out to people and that we deal properly with legitimate concerns. In the context of State care, it is very important that we get the point across to the public that State care does not now mean residential care for the most part, rather it means foster care. It means giving a chance of a second experience of family life to a child who comes to the attention of the State because of serious concerns about his or her care. State care is about foster care for the most part, exclusive of some children who need residential and specialist services. Therefore, when we talk about State care, we are not talking about the institutions of the past. St. Patrick's is an obvious example of an area where there was no reform, and this must be dealt with and changed. That is accepted by the Government and it has taken action to ensure this is done. State care means giving a child the opportunity of a second home where his or her first home has failed him or her.

I wish to take up the point made by the Deputy with regard to the policy framework. It is a policy framework informed by best principles and what is important about it is that it impacts across all Departments and that it is a clear statement on our targets for children. For the first time ever, I have set up an early years group to examine best practice from birth to four. We did not have this previously, but it will be included in the new policy framework. It is important to have a vision of what we want for our young people and that is what the policy is. It also needs to have a practical implementation plan. Perhaps I can come back to the Deputy with the outcomes of the previous framework as that is probably the best way to deal with that. I would be very happy to put together a document on the impact of the first framework. I am not in position to go through the detail of that here, but quite a number of important initiatives for young people flowed from that first policy framework.

The Deputy also asked about the number of children currently needing special care and high support. The number in high support currently is ten, the number in special care is 17, and four children are currently awaiting placement. One of these is very recent and has just been referred while the others are waiting slightly longer. All children in special care are there as a result of a High Court order. From time to time, children with more immediate needs move ahead of some of the children on the waiting list, and we had one example of that this week. A decision had to be made to put a child with very high risk behaviour ahead of one of the children whose need was not as immediate but who is nevertheless high need, given the High Court has said the child should go into special care.

Children who need this level of intensive support are identified in the High Court. The case is then put to the national care admission and discharge committee and it examines each case. If approved by the committee, the child is put on the list and as soon as a place is available, the case is put before the court and it provides for a special care order. This is how it works currently, but there is always the possibility of an escalation of need. Of the four children waiting for places, one has been waiting since April, one since September, one since mid-October and one in recent days. It is clear we need more high support places and we have increased the number of places. We have started using one of the settings that was investigated previously where it was found improvements needed to be made. Those improvements have now been made and we are able to supply quite a number of places in that setting.

This is an area that needs special attention. It has been ignored in the past and we need to have a clear policy and high standards, something we have not had in the past. This is evident from the HIQA reports on some of our residential settings. However, there are improvements and I believe the area is being monitored significantly more at national level. The director of the child and family support services is paying more attention to it and is devising a national policy for the first time. A more local approach was taken previously, but that approach was not good or acceptable enough. The standards in this area were not acceptable. Now, work is ongoing to improve them.

Senator van Turnhout raised the question of direct provision and Deputy Ó Caoláin raised a point related to the Ryan report. I would be very happy for this committee to have a role in regard to implementation of the recommendations of that report. I chaired a meeting of the Ryan recommendations implementation committee earlier this week. Significant progress is being made on the recommendations. Many have been implemented and I would be very happy to come back to the committee to discuss the details. Satisfactory action is being taken on the recommendations of the Ryan report.

I believe I have responded to the point made about HIQA. Direct provision is a concern for me. I confirmed with the HSE this week that it has a responsibility for children in direct provision if there is any question of those children being at risk and in need of assessment as regards care and protection. That is quite clear if a report is made.